Being home: Clarity and bias and confusion

Some time ago I wondered whether I’d be a victim of reverse culture shock being at home in Dubai after 18 months of living and traveling in Europe. Much thanks to all those readers who offered their advice on dealing with it.

Having been here 10 days now, I’m not sure if it’s reverse culture shock, but these have been my most repeated thoughts:

• “How did I live here for 8 years?”
• “I love living on the road and not having concrete plans. I want to be floating as long as possible.”
• “I never want a 9-6 corporate job again. But how long can I wing my vagabonding stint without being poor my whole life? What about 10 years from now? Do I want to continue living abroad and traveling on a shoe-string when I’m 40? Perhaps I need to try following the 4-Hour Work Week ideology.”
• “Do people party like maniacs in Dubai on Monday nights because they want to escape the reality of their corporate life? Why don’t they save that AED45 (approx.$12) they pay per shooter and travel over the weekend instead?
• “Am I choosing to live in Madrid / vagabond to escape responsibilities as long as possible?
• “For the last 2 years, everything in my life has been unstable: city of residence, job, income, and boyfriend. It’s been exhilarating and awesome, but I’ve also often felt like a mess, a complete disaster. Do I need to stabilise at least one of those factors, for my mental stability if nothing else? Perhaps I should look at making Madrid my home?”
• “It really doesn’t matter, I will deal with issues when I have to, pre-empting issues is just silly.”
• “I’m 28 and loving life. But I’m totally off a career track, blogging/writing doesn’t comfortably pay bills and I refuse to wait tables again!”
• “Perhaps I should go to grad school.”
• “Life is too short to be doing what you “should” rather than what you “want”. I’m lucky to have the means to do what I want, I’d be a fool to not make the most of it.”

Yup, even vagabonding has its ups and downs. I think these thoughts are healthy though. It’s always good to pause for a bit and comtemplate what you’ve been up to, especially when you’ve chosen an unconventional path.

I’ve been surrounded by many people I love and have shared these thoughts and got nothing but support and advice from different perspectives. And, I still believe that everything has its way of falling into place…so it’s all good I guess. No?