Every weekday morning I log on to Facebook to see what the world is talking about, so I can come up with news stories for a daily entertainment column I write for an online women’s magazine.
Usually light-hearted topics appear in my news feed – viral videos, Game of Thrones plot theories – but this morning a different theme emerged.
Firstly, I woke up to news of political unrest: flight MH17 had reportedly been shot down on the Ukraine/Russian border by rebel forces and more than 11 Palestinians had been killed over the last 10 days as the conflict between Israel and Palestine continued.
Pictures of the Malaysian Airlines plane in pieces of scattered debris came up on my screen, as did images of injured and killed children covered in rubble being carried through the streets. I felt shocked, saddened and grateful to be a place of calm.
Something else, which at first I thought was entirely unrelated (maybe it is), appeared in my Facebook feed.
“Sometimes the world steers you in different directions, ones completely opposite than what you had planned,” travel blogger Ryan Brown said in a post which popped up on Facebook this morning, called Why I suddenly returned to the U.S. after 8 months of travel.
“However much I wanted to try to keep traveling, and however much I stubbornly didn’t want to return earlier than I had intended, I had to consider my position,” Ryan went on, describing how a lack of funds left him unable to continue his travel plans through Italy, instead opting to return home to the U.S.
“And after three flights in 24-hours and a 15-hour bus ride, I was back in Washington DC. I was somewhere I never thought I’d see myself again that soon.”
Accepting the predicament he’d found himself in, Ryan says he’ll continue to travel, but this time from home instead.
“Since I will be in the US for a bit, I’ve been considering going much more in-depth about travel around the US and places I’ve been.”
Ryan was the first of several bloggers who went on to share similar situations.
“Big news on the blog today — I’ve officially moved back to London!” Flora Baker, of Flora the Explorer, posted on her Facebook page.
“I’ve reached a point where I miss the qualities of home more than I appreciate the new places I’m seeing,” the English blogger said, who decided to move back to London after travelling abroad for the last two-and-a-half years.
“Instead of being sad that my long-term travelling life is over for the time being, I should give London and England the chance to win me over.”
Then, yet another blogger popped into my feed.
“I have a new project!” exclaimed Candice Walsh of Candice Does the World on Facebook this morning, speaking of her new mission called Split The Rock, a video series showcasing her home, the Canadian province of Newfoundland, after returning due to illness.
“Even when I’m spending six months in a constant state of euphoria and awe while travelling Europe, it’s always good to come home.
“And every time that plane approaches the dramatic and slightly terrifying coastline of my island’s east coast, I get butterflies in my tummy. Things are special here.”
Stories of the imminent return home, or of those who have already landed on familiar soil, have filled my feed almost as much as the tragedies of the world today. Bloggers sharing why they decided to return to the land they grew up in, or how the situation wasn’t in their hands at all, instead coming down to fate and completely out of their control.
As these posts sat atop one another in my feed, I wondered if subconsciously we wanderers have felt the gentle pull toward feeling safe and secure at “home”. I wondered whether global disharmony has left us a longing for the familiarity and security that comes with being with the people and the surroundings that make us feel protected.
“I want my mommy to stroke my hair and make me tea,” were Candice’s words in a post she wrote about cutting her travels short, which illustrate my point nicely, but I’m not so sure of her sincerity.
Home can be on the other side of the world. Home doesn’t have to be the place we grew up, or the country in which we were born. But when we live out of a bag, travelling from one place to another, making friends we many never see again in a couple of weeks from now, I wonder whether we drifters have been called back as times become increasingly uncertain in various areas across the globe.
It wasn’t too long ago that I returned to Australia after living in Colombia, which for me wasn’t by choice.
But just like Ryan says, “Sometimes the world steers you in different directions, ones completely opposite than what you had planned.” And I wonder whether I’ve been steered in this direction because I wanted to feel safe in the comforts of home, too.
Are you a wanderer who’s recently found yourself returning home? I want to hear all about it.
Well I think I prefer the course of journey than the destination.. reaching home is a far away call right now 🙂 But I agree with Ryan! I guess our plans are never OURS, destiny always has a different show and story to narrate and we are completely clueless about it. Yeah, we do celebrate homecoming!
I was forced to put my long-term travel plans on hold and return home last year in April. mountains of debt were catching up to me so I realised I had to return and take care of that before going after my dreams and having no financial worries first. That’s why I ended up in Korea. Here at least I can experience being abroad and exploring new places and take care of my finances. For now anyway. 🙂 After this I’ll be back to my original travel plans (Latin America).
I ended up in your blog after googling something like “how to decide when is time to come home expats”…. We have been living in Oz for 4 years. We love it here. We also love our country (chile). We were undecided on what to do next (now that our student visa is over) for almost 6 months. We would wake up one day and be completely sure the right decision was to stay and the next morning we wanted to go back home. We did tons of pros and cons lists, we talked to our families, friends and even random people in the street…I prayed a lot for the universe to give us a “sign” as it felt like a “first world problem”: Should we stay in beautiful Oz and study and enjoy life and be happy etc or should we come back home to our loved ones but to a snob, materialistic society and be happy?
We never got that “sign”, so we decided to stay for 4 more years tops, apply for a PR and citizenship, study some more and then give it a try to go back home, as in any case we would be able to come back to Australia.
Plan was working nicely and this past Friday we were informed that the Aus Gov released the latest “list of skills” required by the country and it seems husbands’ is not in the list anymore. We are not sure but it seems like (we are getting a lawyers opinion this week).
So we started activating plans B and C and D etc…but then I just cant stop thinking about that “sign” i asked for….maybe Life is taking us back home for a reason, maybe is to move us to new lands later on, maybe we need to face old fears…i dont know…i dont know if it would be correct to activate plan B or C just to please a rational desire to stay in Oz because we think it would be better for our current life(style).
Life is so short…maybe being close to my mum and my grandma and my lifetime friends is more important than studying a Masters or having your own successful business, or feeling like you live in a country where you can be WHATEVER you want to be, make a good living out of it and be supported by society even though you dont have a high class last name or studied at the private university….
So bloody hard to decide. Thanks for the vent.
Cheers
Carol