Since October 2013, I’ve been on the road (with a brief two weeks at homebase in between) until May, essentially living out of a backpack the entire time. After my return home with some time to reflect on the journey, I want to thank my family, boyfriend, and friends for being my anchors and are amazingly supportive throughout this experience. I put together this list in response to the first question I get asked the most…“How was your trip?”

8 Things I love about coming home–

• Family and friends are the number one rewards and definitely all there is to the meaning of home!
• Know exactly where I’m going without a map.
• The songs on the radio? Brand spanking new!
• Know where to find things without having to use sign language.
• Receiving mails, not just emails.
• Comfort, home cooked meals and pho.
• Have not logged into hostelworld for days.
• Shoes. I have options again! Same goes for clothes.

8 Things I miss as a nomad–

• Discovering the unknowns from one minute to the next.
• Finding food by smell not by memory.
• Being surrounded by a completely different language that I don’t speak which forces me to pick up the message through other cues, aka, sign language.
• Chances of seeing a shooting star increase by ten folds in most cities.
• Making new friends and hearing their stories.
• Constantly experiencing different lifestyles.
• Limited access to technology. It helps to fully appreciate what’s around, and have a conversation from beginning to end without being interrupted by a text.
• All the beautiful cultures and knowledge that keeps me wanting to learn and share more.

What’s next?

I’ve got thousands of photos and a bunch of videos I want to share which will take some time to organize. Is this the end of my journey? No way! Because travel is a lifestyle, a mentality, a way to connect with the world. It’s a lot more than a vacation, it’s exploration. Whether it be hours, days or weeks at a time, with enough luck, blessing, and hard work, I hope to swap bubbles and share stories for a lifetime.

It’s a comma, semicolon, perhaps a period…but never the end.