Like all newbie travellers, I had no idea what to expect when I hit the road with my backpack for the first time. With all these exotic places embedded in my mind, I strove to visit them all.
Ultimately with high expectations of a destination generally comes disappointment. However, some places I have travelled to have lived up to the pedestal. But, they never felt right.
For months this lack of homeliness plagued my travels and I buried it deep down. Why? Because you never really share your reasons for travelling with the other backpackers your meet. Not only do we rarely get past who you are, where you’ve been and where you’re going in conversation but predominately we have no idea why we actually travel other than our sound reasoning: “why not?”
It is now after dedicating my adult life to travel, which has been scattered over the last six years and three months in large doses, I am finally understanding my motivations.
I was in search of home—that one place where I truly belonged.
And I found it. To my surprise I found home over and over again and never in the same places. From Hostel Bellavista in Chile to Arcadia in Cambodia and even to some extent my miniscule flat in the middle of London. How could this be?
It was when I hit the ocean in Bali that I realised the ocean was my true home. Lucky for me the ocean is vast, so realistically I should have millions of places to live and feel like I’m truly home, right?
But that’s not the case. There’s been many coastal towns that I’ve visited and have no desire to live in, dozens that never instilled that deep sense of belonging. This has led me to my new enlightened realisation.
Home is a state of mind.
It is created from the people we’re with, the food we eat and for me the ocean is on my doorstep. I’m currently living in a small town that seven years ago I couldn’t stand, a place that I could never call home. But now, it feels in every essence like home. Strange, huh?
Where do you call home?
Please feel free to share in the comments below.
It’s very easy as a backpacker to relate to what you’re expressing. Thank you for sharing this! I feel like it took me time to realize some similar concepts as well, one of which is that in order to feel home, no matter where you are, it’s small actions you take that make that place feel home. And like you said –> people is definitely one big aspect. Traveling makes one challenge his or her own beliefs and with that, I believe, comes awareness into how we relate to things, ideas, people, whatever. That awareness is the root of every fruit we will later eat. Oh and btw, I just came back from south east asia and was also at Arcadia hostel in Kampot (if that’s the one you were referring to xD) – what a crazy place!
It really is all in the mind, thank you so much for sharing your experience! You got Arcadia in one, you can read about my time there here >> http://www.rubywhiteroad.com/searching-for-arcadia-heres-where-to-find-it/ Have anymore awesome travel plans for 2017?
Happy travels!
Ruby White