Lessons from a long-term nomadic life

I'm what you might call a long-term nomad as I approach 5 years of travel with no fixed address — an experience that has had a profound impact on my life by giving me the freedom to decide where to live.

It’s a lifestyle that I continue to pursue in new ways this pandemic season by moving onto a sailboat, allowing me to think about the nomadic experience with brand new perspectives.

Travel is profound yet shallow

I was recently reading The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck and there are a few passages about the authors' experiences with nomadic travel that really struck me.

It seemed both so profound yet so meaningless at the same time, and still does”— Mark Manson

Travel bloggers would have you believe that travel is the best thing since sliced bread and that every new experience is profound, and I would agree - to a point. Travel really does have a way of broadening your perspectives. You could travel for many consecutive years like I have, or go backpacking for a couple of months. The truth is, it doesn't really matter. The act of doing it at all is an experience that teaches you about yourself and the world around you in new ways. I feel incredibly fortunate for my experiences and would love to see a world where more people are presented with similar opportunities.

It's also true that travel can also be incredibly shallow. A transient life makes forming and maintaining new relationships difficult. Your relationship with the places you visit is predicated on the fact that once you're fed up with that place, you'll just move on to the next one. For example, I love Vancouver, but I have a sunny disposition about it because I’ve only visited in the summer months.