I Don’t Regret a Second of My Travels
Here we are together on this paradise island in south-east Asia, laptops closed for the day. This is the digital nomad dream, isn’t it? This is what adventure and freedom looks like, right? We’re happy! Or are we all just pretending?
There was a piece in the Guardian recently, nominally about some digital nomads and how their escape turned sour.
I was looking forward to posting about another cautionary tale about how escapes sometimes don’t work out, but despite the headline, the piece isn’t exactly that. It looks to me like the digital nomads had an excellent time:
I worked my own hours, usually during the day, for a handful of clients. Come evening, I would hop on the back of a scooter and drive through plumes of street-food smoke to meet new friends on the beach and sip from coconuts. It all felt wonderfully freeing.
Some of these nomads have had enough of the freedom and want to settle down again with some property and stability and a sense of permanence. Okay. Nothing wrong with that. And do these nomads regret their time on the road? It seems not:
Like all the former digital nomads I’ve spoken to, I don’t regret a second of my travels. I am immensely grateful to have had an opportunity that many aren’t afforded – and I often felt that gratitude intensely as I looked on, in awe, at the foreign landscapes I found myself in.
So the story isn’t that “the dream turned sour” at all. It’s that “I had a brilliant time with digital nomadism and now I’m trying something else.”
A change isn’t forever. Why would it be? Who said it should be? You can change again, whether forwards into another experiment or back into something more conventional. That’s not a failure. Nothing turned sour. You just moved on.
And it’s not a “gap in the CV” by the way. Your CV, if such a thing is important to you, will display an era of successful self-employment. When asked about it, tell the truth. Tell them what you got out of it and what you learned.
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About Robert Wringham
Robert Wringham is the editor of New Escapologist. He also writes books and articles. Read more at wringham.co.uk