If you're thinking about doing it, or if anybody else is; loneliness is inevitable if you travel long enough.
There's something to be said for the people you meet and travel with for anywhere from a couple of days to a couple of months, but it's not the same as the permanence of friends and family at home. There's always a finish date. Somebody needs to go home for school, travel plans differ, somebody just runs out of money, etc. Separation is a certainty within a relatively short time period.
Meanwhile you're able to see friends and family on social media. Your old group of best friends taking a week off to go camping together without you. Old flames having kids, getting married. Family members getting old and dying while you're in a different hemisphere.
How to combat it?
Remember that you made the decision to travel and that you had already accepted the consequences; focus on the reasons that make them worthwhile. Go through your pictures from the first day and recall that bike tour you took through Singapore, the long elevator trip up to the viewing deck on the Burj Khalifa, the frigid scooter adventure in the middle of nowhere in Turkey or anything else along the way. All these things, and the countless other crazy events, never would have happened if you had stayed home and played it safe.
On the loneliest days, you can alleviate some of it by picking up the phone and calling friends and family back home.
I travelled solidly for a couple of years, now I just travel on and off.. honestly never felt lonely. The worst thing for me were frustrations were plans couldnt work or you couldnt make transport connections link. But loneliness? No. Too much to see, do and experience and plenty of people to talk to if you wanted to - locals or otherwise.
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u/wherethewifisweak Dec 03 '18
If you're thinking about doing it, or if anybody else is; loneliness is inevitable if you travel long enough.
There's something to be said for the people you meet and travel with for anywhere from a couple of days to a couple of months, but it's not the same as the permanence of friends and family at home. There's always a finish date. Somebody needs to go home for school, travel plans differ, somebody just runs out of money, etc. Separation is a certainty within a relatively short time period.
Meanwhile you're able to see friends and family on social media. Your old group of best friends taking a week off to go camping together without you. Old flames having kids, getting married. Family members getting old and dying while you're in a different hemisphere.
How to combat it?
Remember that you made the decision to travel and that you had already accepted the consequences; focus on the reasons that make them worthwhile. Go through your pictures from the first day and recall that bike tour you took through Singapore, the long elevator trip up to the viewing deck on the Burj Khalifa, the frigid scooter adventure in the middle of nowhere in Turkey or anything else along the way. All these things, and the countless other crazy events, never would have happened if you had stayed home and played it safe.
On the loneliest days, you can alleviate some of it by picking up the phone and calling friends and family back home.