January 29, 2016
Five days ago, my friend and I were enjoying our last full day in Belize, biking around Caye Caulker and having one last breakfast at the Caribbean Colors Art Cafe.
Snorkeling at the barrier reef, Caye Caulker, Belize
Today I am bundled up in jeans and a sweatshirt. Underneath the sweatshirt my tan is peeling.
I’m not sure if it’s post-birthday fallout (I turned 33 yesterday) or if it’s being back in the very house where my digital nomad lifestyle began, but this afternoon I feel both calm and introspective. I keep thinking about how I’ve grown into my world traveler lifestyle, and where and how I want to continue to grow in the next year (or two).
I love that people call me “world traveler” and that I call myself a “digital nomad.” I love that my boyfriend refers to me as his “globe-trotting girlfriend” and that my mom’s work colleagues ask about my travels. I feel glamorous and interesting, which are not words I would have used to describe myself a couple of years ago.
I love traveling: the excitement of a new place, new things to explore, new people to meet, new things to learn about myself and the world around me. There’s a definite feeling of enjoying the here and now while also getting excited for what’s ahead.
At the same time, traveling has its downsides. Forming anything more than casual friendships is hard, and it takes work to maintain them after I leave. Sometimes I get tired of talking about the same things (history, politics, cultural differences) and long to talk about what’s going on with me, rather than more socially acceptable topics.
I miss being able to take classes like ballet; my arrival and departure dates never sync up with the local community center’s “semester.” And when I cannot locate myself near a barbershop chorus, I miss the connection of singing with other women.
Loved meeting my Crystal Chords friends & singing with them at contest!
When I started my travel lifestyle in April 2014, I planned to be on the road for 9 months. But when the time came to make plans to return to Portland, I kept right on accepting house-sitting assignments into 2015 instead. It was absolutely the right decision; 2015 was a wonderful year for me, and I will be writing a separate post all about it at some point (hopefully soon!)
In the meantime, there is a brand new year ahead of me. It begs the question: what will I do with myself this year? Some of you have already asked me this very question, so I know you’re wondering about it too!
So far, my biggest decision for 2016 is that I’ve decided to take a break from house-sitting.
Something about turning 33, or maybe just realizing I’ve been traveling for nearly 2 years, makes me want to slow down this year and actually make progress in a few key areas. It’s hard to do that when I’m spending a lot of time and mental focus trying to find the next house-sitting opportunity.
It’s all about focus, baby.
In fact, the more I think about what I want to accomplish this year, the more I realize that I’m going to be telling myself to focus a lot over the next 11 months.
Those of you who know me well know that my plans for where I want to go and what I want to do change a lot.
But I’m trying to avoid that this year and actually stick to working on an idea/project for longer than a couple of weeks.
There’s a lot of stuff I want to do, most of it small, some of it big. Out of that laundry list, these three things stick out as the most important:
- Do great work for Ruzuku.
- Make steady progress on selling my house-sitting course.
- Build up my emergency fund to $18,000.
Now that I’ve typed it out, it looks rather simple. I could make it more complicated and add a couple of bullet points to each of these (and trust me, there are at least two for each of these goals!)
But I like the simplicity of this list. It allows me to remember – to focus – on what I want to be doing on a big picture level, and that any major decision has to support one (preferably more) of these goals.
So where does that leave my travel schedule? Never fear – I’m not hanging up my backpack and passport just yet!
With some wiggle room, here’s where I’m planning to be this year:
February – mid-May: Vancouver/Portland
End of May/early June: Colorado and/or Ecuador
Mid-June – August: Belturbet, Ireland
September – November: Malta
December: Portland
And after December, who knows? It will have to be somewhere outside the US, to maintain my tax-exempt status. Hopefully by the time fall rolls around, I’ll be able to see how well my focus has held up, and make some plans for the first half of 2017.
Sunset over Caye Caulker, Belize
In the meantime, I intend to enjoy every minute of being “home” in Portland. That means reconnecting with my home chorus, getting started on some business projects, and making a concerted effort to bring this blog up to date. It’s going to be a busy four months!
Until next time,
Felicity
P.S. If you’re in the Portland or Vancouver area, get in touch! I want to see everyone while I’m here. 🙂
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