It kind of felt like a big anti-climax when I arrived in Bangkok. I was going to travel for a whole year and I felt so happy and sad at the same time. This is my blog post about the first days in my one year of travel.
For the last three years, basically ever since I met Glenn, I had a dream. I wanted us to go see the world together. Luckily for me, Glenn wanted the same. So for the last three years we worked hard towards making that dream come true.
However, when we finally left for traveling, I felt just awful. This is my first days of travel in my one year trip.
Setting a goal and working towards it
While I was studying Sociology, I worked a part-time weekend-job to be able to save up for this trip of my dreams. This meant that the dream of travel also became a goal in itself. I was tired of prioritizing work over friends in the weekends, but I was also determined to keep working because I had set a goal for myself.
By working hard, I could see how I got closer and closer to reaching my goal. It was such a big motivation that my savings grew a little bigger every month and it really kept me going.
So if my friends went out on a Saturday, and I had to get up at 5 AM for work the next day, I motivated myself by watching travel vloggers and reading travel blogs.
It helped a little bit, but I still cannot help feeling like I missed out on some great memories with my friends.
But I chose to work towards travel, because I realized I could not have it all at once.
Leaving home was harder than I expected
Fast-forward to July 10, 2019.
With a one-way ticket in one hand and Glenn in the other, I was finally ready to go. I was as ready as I could ever be.
I reached the goal I worked towards for so long. My dream would finally come true! One year of travel! With my Glenn! Then why was I not feeling as happy as I should?
The truth is that the first few days when we were in Bangkok I got really sick.
I had a bad stomach, nausea, I couldn’t really eat (I love eating – something is wrong if I’m not eating!). I now know that I got sick because I was so overwhelmed.
Thinking back, I was probably overwhelmed by the many goodbyes I had to say to my friends and family. It was honestly so hard to just pack up and leave – I mean, I wasn’t going to see anyone I loved for a whole year. Especially saying goodbye to my mom in the airport was hard. I had dreaded this for days, but it went very well and my mom was super supportive as always.
It was a super weird situation, I was still an emotional wreck, but at the same time, I was super excited to finally be boarding that plane and go full-time traveling!
The flight was good, but we didn’t sleep at all and the jet lag kicked in.
So there I was in Bangkok – emotionally unstable, super tired and sad, but also excited about the adventure ahead.
When we checked in to our hotel I hadn’t slept for 24 hours. I remember laying my head on the pillow, expecting myself to fall asleep right away. But I didn’t.
Instead I was twisting and turning, my body was shaking and all I wanted to do was to sleep.
I felt sad and cried a little bit, but realized I needed to pick myself up again.
So I decided to head downstairs to the restaurant and have a few bites of fried rice. It made me feel a bit better and I fell asleep once I got up to the room again.
Then I woke up later that evening and the bad stomach happened … What a great first day to our one year of travel around the world.
Accept the changes and give yourself time
I realized that when my big dream became a reality, I had to accept all the changes that followed. This meant getting used to a whole new lifestyle.
It took some time, but now as I’m writing this (13 days later in Thailand), I feel fit for fight and I could not be happier about my decision to go travel. I think that in every life-changing decision, it can feel like an anticlimax to finally get what we have been working towards for so long.
Like if you finish an education or get your dream job – so what now? What’s next?
Don’t worry if your dream is not what you imagined. My first days of travel on this one year trip was awful, but it did get much better with time!
For me, the chase of a dream is something I really enjoy.
I can feel how the hardships I go through to reach it makes me much stronger.
It also makes it so much better once you are there, knowing that you had to make sacrifices to be where you are now.
That’s why it is important to set goals and dreams for yourself. Now that I have reached my dream, I will go live it.
I hope you enjoyed this short blog post about how it can be tough to begin a new journey in life. I also wrote a review about the full-time travel lifestyle after half a year on the road if you want to know how it went. Thanks for reading!
Your reflection here is quite profound and I couldn’t agree more. There’s definitely something about it. I had an almost identical experience when I left on my own RTW trip. Armed with champagne and treats for the first night in a UK hotel room before jumping on a flight to Mexico I felt sick to my core, completely overwhelmed and just sad. You go through so many emotions and naturally the body just demands rest and downtime. It can be quite disheartening though as you’ve had this image in your head for literally years of what this start of your epic journey will be like. Don’t worry – it’s all normal. Thank you so much for sharing so bravely. X
Thanks for your lovely comment. It is funny though, how people react differently. Glenn was ready to go-go-go while all I could do was lay in the hotel bed. I felt disappointed in myself for having these feelings, like you said, you have this image about how amazing it will be. Nice to know I’m not alone. X (and now I’m having the time of my life, just like I know you had)