Life on the road is pretty much all I've ever known. Well, except for the few months of time right after I moved to Downtown LA. I set myself into near panic trying to figure out what to do with myself in one place for so long. Since I was a kid, I'd never spent more than just a few weeks in one place.
The road has always seemed like a glamorous place to be. Jumping from tour bus to tour bus or plane to plane seems to be synonymous with celebrities and big wig business folk alike. Then along came all the travel influencers, bringing it all home and making us all drool over the places we could be.
Listen, if you've read any of my many blogs, you know how much I value travel. I do believe it can be the greatest form of education and expansion. I do know it's a privilege. I do love it. And yet being on the road is vastly underestimated and misinterpreted.
Here's what no one tells you:
1. Completely F*cked Sleeping Schedules
Timezone changes, late night travels, early morning calls and those confusing mornings where you wake up and have legitimately no idea where you are make for a strange sleep cycle. I'm one of the lucky ones who can sleep anywhere, anytime, any place (come to think of it maybe it's just the exhaustion) but no matter what, the real thing that gets loopy is the circadian system. That's right, your most important organ: your heart.
Worth it? Depends who you ask, but for the expansion, I say yes.
2. Constantly Having to Reacquaint Yourself With Your Surroundings
I'm talking city streets to grocery stores to outlets, utensils and light switches. Being disoriented is real... well... disorienting. When so much brain power goes into getting acquainted with your space over and over again, your energy drains pretty easily. But hey, maybe it's good stimulation for those neurons?
3. What's Reliability?
WiFi, power, food, phone service, water, culture, space and people vary from place to place and there's no telling what you're gonna get until you get there. It's hard to rely on anything going exactly how you imagine so it's best to always have a few backup plans. Not to mention, the act of getting from place to place in and of itself can be unreliable making sticking to any real rigid schedule a bit of a gamble.
4. Focus
This one is a ridiculous dilemma, but when life is so stimulating and at times overwhelming, it's hard to focus. New view, new food, new weather. It all keeps you frenzying to keep up, but life goes on. Bills still come, work still grinds, people still call, health still demands and all the while, the next place needs your careful planning, research and diligence.
5. Loneliness
The hardest one of all has to be the loneliness. It's certainly not always like this depending on who (if anyone) you're on the road with, where you are, what you're doing and what your personality type is. Some of the relationships created on the road or at the destination(s) are the richest, absolutely, but there's also a lonely, nomadic don't-belong-nowhere kind of vibe. Your old life is miles behind, your new life is somewhere between here and the horizon. It's always changing and you're always searching.
Cue Whitesnake's "Here I Go Again."
6. No Real Place to Call Home
Though the road is home to me, I also crave stability. It's a tough paradox. It's challenging to invest in anything because everything seems so short-term. You want to soak in every moment because you know this life is what people dream of, but it's all happening so fast that it's hard to digest. I appreciate every moment on the road, but I do yearn for a community, a place of my own, and a slow, quiet morning where I know where my blender is.
Maybe someday.
It's so easy to want what you don't have on either side of the spectrum. Wherever you are, enjoy every moment.
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If you need help feeling grounded, let me show you all my tricks to feel at home even if you're away from home.
