On the finish of 2020, I wrote about making an attempt to get better what I referred to as “the misplaced 12 months” — the 12 months through which I bought COVID, noticed all my companies collapse, took out tons of loans to keep away from chapter, and, like everybody, needed to put all my life plans (settling down, shopping for a home, becoming a member of some social golf equipment, courting) on a seemingly infinite maintain.
Because the 12 months wound to a detailed, I wanted a psychological break, so I went to Mexico with mates, with a plan to lease a home and keep within the Tulum/Playa space. Over the following seven weeks, I fell in love with the nation and, particularly, Oaxaca. (Tulum sucked so we left.)
This 12 months, the vaccine turned accessible, many nations reopened their borders, and I headed again out on the highway. I at all times describe journey like a battery, and, after over a 12 months of being house, mine was overcharged. I used to be like a child who had simply been given again his toy after an extended time-out. I needed to play with it additional lengthy, and nothing was going to get in my approach.
I gave up my house, went on a highway journey across the US, headed to Europe for just a few months, got here again and bounced across the States some extra, skilled Day of the Useless in Oaxaca, went to France to see the Christmas markets in Strasbourg, Aruba for a pal’s marriage ceremony, NYC, and shortly South America.
My mates joke that I’m totally nomadic once more. “We knew the settling down factor wouldn’t final.”
If it weren’t for COVID, although, it most likely would have.
I nonetheless need all these non-nomadic issues, and now I’m starting to really feel like my journey battery’s energy gauge is getting towards zero. I’ve already determined to chop my South America journey a bit of quick, and the previous couple of weeks of frenetic journey have me serious about shortening it much more.
However, because the 12 months ends and I mirror on the final twelve months, it’s clear that 2021 has been something however a misplaced 12 months.
This not-so-lost 12 months has taught me quite a bit about steadiness. I’m a Gemini, and whereas I don’t at all times subscribe to astrology in relation to being “a twin,” that facet of the signal is certainly me. I’m usually somebody who goes from one excessive to a different. It was all journey at one level for me — after which it was all about settling down.
I at all times thought my life was balanced, however the downtime COVID gave me has proven me it wasn’t as balanced as I believed. Now, after this life reset the pandemic has given all of us, this 12 months has made me oddly really feel very balanced between my extremes. (Life is all about that, proper?)
(That is Francesco from Ios. He ran a hostel there. Ten years later, he nonetheless remembered me. Hanging out with him was a spotlight of the 12 months.)
I juggle three primary plates: journey, work, and wanting a settled life in Austin. I’m nonetheless perpetually pulled to new locations and intrigued by lengthy journeys (“India? Effectively, I can solely actually see it if I am going for six months, so I suppose it’s time to surrender that house once more!”), however I’ve gotten higher at studying that I’ve to just accept shorter journeys if I need to even have a life in Austin.
I’ve talked about my anxiousness up to now, and, after I began my first Europe journey this 12 months, it (and the attention twitch that comes with it) returned in full power. My work and journey lives have been unbalanced inside weeks of being on the highway.
Then I made a decision to lastly make a giant change: I upgraded my lodging. I began staying in nicer guesthouses and resorts as an alternative of low cost hostels and dorm rooms. It made an enormous distinction as a result of having a superb area to work from and never working round on the lookout for Wi-Fi has made my days quite a bit much less anxious. Higher lodging additionally led to higher sleep and a drop in my anxiousness ranges.
So I went from one excessive (being caught at house) to a different (fixed touring) and located that the Buddha was proper: the center approach is one of the best ways. It’s not about having to surrender one for the opposite however simply discovering a steadiness between them.
In that sense, the pandemic has been an academic expertise, and, as this 12 months ends, I really feel much more balanced, free, and happier than I did up to now. I’m a lot much less anxious and extra content material with the place I’m. This pandemic fucking sucks and I can’t look forward to it to be over however, as I look again on one other 12 months of it, I bought to say it was a pivotal second for private development.
As they are saying, it’s at all times essential to look on the intense facet of life.
Earlier than I finish, I simply needed to once more thanks all for studying this web site, sharing our suggestions, becoming a member of our digital occasions, supporting our e book membership, and the whole lot in between.
We’ve lasted one other 12 months, and we couldn’t be right here with out you. I simply actually need to say thanks. After I began this journey in 2008, I by no means anticipated that so many individuals would learn what I wrote or that we’d be capable of manage occasions that introduced collectively so many fantastic individuals. And, irrespective of what number of years we do that, it nonetheless at all times amazes me.
So, thanks for an additional nice 12 months.
Have an excellent vacation season, a Merry Christmas, and a Joyful New 12 months! See you in 2022!
– Nomadic Matt
P.S. – I do know I’m extremely fortunate to have the ability to journey when a lot of the world is beneath restrictions and so many are nonetheless unable to depart their house nation. Touring in the course of the pandemic is a minefield of fixing rules, filling out paperwork, and continually monitoring case counts and lockdown notices. (The quickly altering guidelines across the Omicron variant are a working example.) I continually depend my blessings that I can nonetheless go locations.
