Comments on: Why Going Home Does Not Mean Failure https://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/going-home/ Travel Better, Cheaper, Longer Tue, 27 Aug 2024 11:57:27 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9 By: Anne https://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/going-home/#comment-990340 Fri, 28 Apr 2017 15:52:34 +0000 https://www.nomadicmatt.com/?p=20375#comment-990340 I stumbled across this while traveling on my first trip overseas.

I am 18 and have been away from home 1 month 2 weeks of those where with my mum and I’ve been now traveling with my close friend for 2 weeks. I feel completely homesick. The thoughts are all consuming and I just want to be at home. I know if I fly home to Australia it’s not likely I’ll make it back over here any time soon as the flights are so expensive. I’m stuck. When is it time to go home and when do you have to tough it out?

Maybe I’m not the type of person who deals with being away for along time. I don’t want to feel like a failure but I do want to go home. Part of me knows that if I go home I’ll be disappointed but the other part knows that I will be happy and I won’t have this terrible feeling anymore of homesickness.

It’s so confusing. But this artical told me if I do decide to go home – that I’m not a failure and I’ve had good times that have shaped me – and I’ll come back one day and complete what I have started.

]]> By: James LeMaster https://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/going-home/#comment-983493 Sun, 12 Feb 2017 07:51:10 +0000 https://www.nomadicmatt.com/?p=20375#comment-983493 When I felt lost and confused from my life at home, I realized I had to get away from it all so I planned a trip to travel for an extended amount of time. I wanted to see what I’d miss, if what I was doing was what I wanted.

I’m about to be 4 months into the trip. For me juggling the idea of going home now, isn’t about not loving long-term travel. It’s about realizing I loved what I was doing home and I went to chase one dream and realized I was already living my dream at home.

Thanks for this post.

]]> By: Christine https://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/going-home/#comment-978938 Thu, 17 Nov 2016 23:35:12 +0000 https://www.nomadicmatt.com/?p=20375#comment-978938 In reply to Lisa.

Lisa, I know I am 3 years late but I just stumbled upon this article because I was having the same feelings.
Literally the exact situation you were in, almost 3 months in and I’m starting to notice I get very irritable and frustrated a lot faster than I normally do. I realize that may be a result in me not enjoying long term travel. Don’t get me wrong ILOVE travel but this trip has made me realize I love the short term travel I plan a couple times a year back home.
I liked and miss my routine I had at home and though I have done some great things here in Australia (trust me many more on my list) but getting low on money has been dragging on me as well as all I can think about it going home to my room, my bed, my belongings. I don’t like living out of a suitcase or hostels or not having mostly everything planned. I’m a creature of habit and I do miss that about myself.

Any chance you found this and let me know what decision you made and how you got to that decision? Thank you!

]]> By: Josie C. https://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/going-home/#comment-977310 Tue, 04 Oct 2016 18:55:58 +0000 https://www.nomadicmatt.com/?p=20375#comment-977310 Thank you. I made the choice of leaving home to go to college 10 hours away. (I’m the first in my family to do so.) I’ve learned that I don’t like being away from my family, that small towns (I’m from a 5+mil population and my school is located in a under 6,000 population.), and that I can be happy some where else. Your article about your travels has really helped me, in realizing that by moving away (for no matter how long) has taught me many things, one being that I don’t want to be so far from my family. I’ve been experiencing a lot negative support from family members, who tell me to “stick it out” for a year, but as the days go on, I’ve learned that by “sticking it out” I am just barely surviving day to day and am not really living. Your article here has truly been a blessing. Thank you for realizing that you are in no way “giving-up” but instead moving to newer and better, and bigger.

Thank you for this article. Thank you for saying what some don’t. Thank you for reminding people that it doesn’t matter what people think, as long as it is the right choice for you.

]]> By: Danielle Martincich https://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/going-home/#comment-976637 Mon, 12 Sep 2016 01:46:37 +0000 https://www.nomadicmatt.com/?p=20375#comment-976637 Hi Matt

THANK YOU! I needed this post. In April i was in Australia and was only sad and “homesick” on the day i was supposed to go home because my plane was delayed by a day. However i am abroad and your post made me realise that whatever decision I make – well that’s okay, because i have nothing to prove to anyone.

Im new to your blogs and this is the first of many. xx

]]> By: Ravi https://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/going-home/#comment-974517 Mon, 27 Jun 2016 20:45:33 +0000 https://www.nomadicmatt.com/?p=20375#comment-974517 Beautiful post. I spent 16 months living and travelling abroad and returned home last year. It was a strange thing to be back in the same place, but a completely different person from who I was. I completely understand what you mean when you say it doesn’t feel like home anymore. Travel really does bring out this new person with bigger ambitions and the sense of adventure only grows stronger. Maybe somewhere will be home some day, but you owe it to yourself to let adventure flourish while the mood is there.

]]> By: Pais https://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/going-home/#comment-970830 Mon, 15 Feb 2016 03:00:07 +0000 https://www.nomadicmatt.com/?p=20375#comment-970830 I feel so relieved to find out lm not the only one with all these feelings!

I got to Australia from the UK 6 weeks ago and I am incredibly homesick! I have planned to be away for 12 months and thought I would absolutely love it.

I met a boyfriend a few months before I set off and he has been incredibly supportive, however, I can’t help thinking it would all be better with him here. I feel it would have been different if I hadn’t met him and I probably wouldn’t have gone home but now all I think about is going home and having routine and my family.

I also had to send a big chunk of my savings home after already not budgeting very well with what I had and now half my savings are gone and I haven’t even done anything exciting yet!

I’m really at a cross roads of whether to push ahead and see if it changes or to realise that I can’t just be having a bad day every single day of my trip.

I am currently working for accommodation at a hostel on the Sunshine Coast, it’s the first time I have stayed in a hostel. Maybe I should go somewhere else or organise a trip to meet other people?

Ahh!! Scared of failing and ending up depressed at home.

]]> By: Meagan https://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/going-home/#comment-970409 Tue, 02 Feb 2016 15:22:31 +0000 https://www.nomadicmatt.com/?p=20375#comment-970409 Thanks for being a constant companion on the road Matt. I’m on the road now – my first major long term trip by myself and am hitting a bit of a rut. I have literally been sick for a month…Thai belly, then a sinus infection, a rash and then food poisoning (or something resembling such). I’m feeling a bit beaten up by S.E. Asia. I came back to read this post that I had already read before I left. I don’t want to pack it in though. This reminded me that it’s ok to be unsure of the road ahead as well. Thanks

]]> By: Samantha https://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/going-home/#comment-941797 Tue, 15 Sep 2015 08:58:56 +0000 https://www.nomadicmatt.com/?p=20375#comment-941797 This post is really resonant with me right now. Me and my partner went on a working holiday to Australia last november. We did our 3 months farm work to get our second year visa, and then we travelled for about 5 weeks before having to stop for work. We were so intent on following our set route, we ended up staying in one hostel and working for our accommodation for a month, and we loved it there so applied for loads of jobs, but we were unsuccessful. I’d already tried working as a waitress in the evenings while we were at the farm, and got fired after 3 weeks because I was so bad at it! We moved to Brisbane, ended up in a really expensive hostel and then decided we were missing home and flew home at the end of April this year. Some days I feel like we failed, and that we could have made it work somehow, but if I think back to the conversations we had at the time, it was like we were looking for any excuse to come home. We definitely learnt some valuable lessons, from what not to pack, to how to live on little money, (and that I will never be a waitress again!) and it definitely wasn’t a wasted trip. I’ve been reading your inspiration pages Matt, and we are going to try again next year! Thank you x

]]> By: Joe https://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/going-home/#comment-871476 Mon, 06 Apr 2015 10:15:07 +0000 https://www.nomadicmatt.com/?p=20375#comment-871476 What do you think about going home for a short break then carrying on with travelling.
I been 6 months travelling and kind of lost my wanderlust, I think a short trip home will get me to want to go back travelling.
What’s do you think?

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