Thoughts Amid Chaos
People often associate the nomadic lifestyle with freedom and a rejection of the restraints of everyday tedium... but in reality, it's quite the opposite. Living for a long period of time, perhaps your whole life, without a home means you have to keep track of everything you own. Not only do you have to keep track of it... you have to carry it with you. (And if you're often traveling alone like me, that means traveling "light.")
Regardless of my personal baggage (literal and figurative), there is something else that makes traveling a lot less freewheeling and a lot more anxiety-inducing. A great dingy web of paperwork and bureaucracy plague me day and night as I struggle to make sure I'm not breaking any rules by being in the countries that are playing host to me. As welcoming as the people of each nation can be, governments can be a bit icier towards international visitors now a days... and I can't really blame them.
The thing is... it falls to me and only me to make sure everything fits into place. No one is going to organize my belongings to get from Stockholm to Helsinki. A pencil pusher from the consulate isn't going to show up on the doorstep of my Airbnb to make sure all my visa forms are filled out correctly. And if I forget something important.... say, like a passport (it's happened before), there's no way I'm getting through international security. Goodbye flight number F$!*@&#itdoesn'tmatterwhatit'scalledbecausei'mnotonitanyways...
When you are living on an international level, there is little room for error...
Unfortunately the way I'm built, I tend to think of the future, but not everything I need to do in order to make that future a reality. So I've had to adapt. I've had to sit down and think about all the things a person can do to make an international move (or long term trip) easier. Here is an article I wrote on the subject.
In terms of this month, I have got quite a few big things to deal with... Organizing the trip to Scandinavia for November, deciding where I will live over the next few months, and taking all the steps to make sure that I can do all of the things I plan without screwing anything up! When you're traveling over serious borders, you have to learn to think of the "big" things and the "small" things at the same time.
It's a constant rebalancing of focus every time I move or some event that's out of my control disrupts my rhythm, but I'm learning.
This week, I'm learning how to decline people's invitations without feeling guilty and without losing my sociability... I.e. trying to get work done yet still remembering to make time for pre-dinner chatter with my hosts.
Let's just see how it goes.........
L.D. has spent the past two years traveling, writing, and encouraging readers to look at the world with fresh eyes. For anyone who feels like their life has lost its vibrancy, she offers some advice, “Open new doors, challenge yourself, and fall in love with other people's stories.”
For advice and encouragement, her articles are there for you...
