Next week will be my first visit home in well over a year, and I can honestly barely wait. For many travellers and expats visiting home once a year may seem unnecessary, expensive and ‘a bit soft’ but for me, it’s essential. I’ve been living abroad for almost seven years now and let me tell you, life goes on at home just as it does where you are, so it’s important to cherish not only your new-found life abroad, but also the one at home that includes your family, friends and loved ones.
Trying to juggle other travel plans around visiting home can be difficult, but its worth putting in the effort to keep your home-ties strong and it also gives you a chance to ‘check in’ with yourself and your goals and re-evaluate why it is that you don’t live in your home country any more. It also helps to give you some perspective about what you want from the year ahead.
The years that go by for me seem to be punctuated with these amazing travels around the world, and also with a trip home each year in the Australian summer, which just so happens to coincide with the start of a new year. These trips allow me to reset and get excited again about being an expat and having the opportunity to see the world. I see this regular trip home as pure escape – I don’t need to think about anything, and I can forget my life and step back into a world that feels safe, fun and often like an endless summer feeling of ‘Fuck it, let’s do it!’
Most people out there living the location independent life are usually working damn hard to make that life happen, which means not a lot of rest time, and probably a whole lot of sleepless nights and stress. I know the last year for me I have worked harder than ever before, and while I’ve got a lot to show for it, I’m finding a lot more grey hairs these days! Sometimes we all just need some time to see the people we care about the most – people who quickly bring you back down to Earth and make you feel like everything will be OK no matter what.
So, tomorrow I am off on my trip, (stopping in Dubai and Kuala Lumpur before reaching Australia) and it’s going to be three weeks of rest, eating, drinking and hopefully lots of laughs and acting like teenagers too. I’m going to see my whole family (including my BF’s one too), all our friends and spend some time in the town I grew up in, and explore some new places with old friends too.
If over the coming year you find yourself feeling stressed or run down, maybe even feeling a little bit homesick, don’t underestimate the power of the visit home. People may only be a phone call away, but sometimes there’s nothing better than a hug, sharing a beer and the familiarity of home.
Spending long periods abroad is always difficult, life might be fantastic in whatever country you move to but there is simply nothing better than the chance to get home for a bit, as someone who has spent time living abroad I can totally relate with needing to get home at least once a year.
Wherever we go i think Home is become one place to come back, and many things you can save in your home including the memory while traveling abroad