Post Travel Emotions


“I found myself many times saying “When I go back to my real life then…. “

Being away and experiencing so much in a short period of time makes you grow so much faster. Sometimes it doesn’t feel like “real” or “ordinary” life any more. It feels like other kind of reality.

Every day is new and interesting. Other culture, different music, interesting food, different people, other habits, customs and you are inside all this cultural thunder.

You need to learn how to settle very fast in every situation, find solutions to all the problems what may appear. You take care of yourself, you need to take responsibility. You have to act quickly if needed, adapt fast and understand how to get from A to B to C to D to back A again without getting robbed, lost, hit by a car, not missing your plane or train, managing your money, keeping your health and getting enough sleep and food, also communicating with people all the time. Actually I enjoy this madness. Stepping out of your comfort zone is the first step to change, right?

But there always comes a time when you need to return back home.

Finally when you come back, only then you’ll see how much you actually changed. You didn’t understand that before, but now you do.

And then…. reverse cultural shock begins.

Have you heard about reverse cultural shock before? Yes, it exists and even can last longer and take more time to settle with your so called ordinary life again.

Some things what used to be normal to you, don’t seem so okay any more.

Maybe your sense of clothing has changed, perhaps your world views are different. Maybe you don’t want to talk about how drunk somebody was on a party. You are surprised how those small meaningless things can be such a big issue to some people. You are gone trough so many things, learned a lot and changed a lot, and in one point it may seem like there is no one who can understand and relate with you.

Normal things don’t seem normal any more. This makes so much confusion.

Questions like following start to appear — Who am I? Why am I here? Where do I belong? What I want to do in my life? What is this life about? What is my purpose here? What can I do to help people?

Bigger issues feel closer to you as ever before. You met people who are from countries with conflicts happening right now. You have talked with them, heard their stories. Now world has start to seem like a totally different place and you can’t ignore any more the things what are happening in the world. You have a personal contact with world issues now.

When I come back from being away, of course I’m glad to see all my friends again. Sleeping in my own bed has never felt better. I see my family who I missed so much and pet my dog again.

But still, it feels like that people I met in my travels, to them I gave a little piece of my heart to hold.

I left pieces of me to the places I went.

Now all there’s left is this hope to go back to the most favorite places and most favorite people to meet again the pieces which I gave them to hold.

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