After traveling extensively for the past ten years, I’ve learned a few things about myself and the world that I owe to a life on the road. This includes everything from the importance in choosing good footwear to how poorer countries tend to cherish their children more.
In no particular order, here they are…
Before our kids and even before he was my husband, Charles and I spent a year traveling in South East Asia, Australia and New Zealand. We dove the Great Barrier Reef, saw ancient Angkor temples in Cambodia, and watched wild orangutans playing in the Sumatran jungle.
We came out of that with a commitment: We weren’t going to live a conventional life. It was travel for us; the open road and all that it offers. We were going to be digital nomads.
We made a plan: travel every winter, and come back to Canada in the summers to earn some money, enjoy the sun, and visit family.
And then we had children…
I wrote this post a few years ago, after we came back from an extended trip across South East Asia, New Zealand and Australia.
Some things have changed. Today, I have two great kids, and I’ve moved to British Columbia, Canada, one of the most gorgeous areas I’ve seen in my travels, and where I can see the mountains everyday. But I still struggle with that surreal juxtaposition of our adventurous, nomadic travels, and returning to our so-called normal, everyday life in Canada. And Cosmo still cuddles us at night.