Last week a good friend of mine confessed that although he was on vacation, he didn’t feel excited or even as happy as he thought he’d be.
He deduced that the reason for his lack of excitement was because he wasn’t able to take part in his hobbies while he’s out and about. The routines he’s setup for himself were left back at home and there was no way for him to enjoy writing, performing on stage, or any of his other favorite activities.
As a result, he was desperately missing home even though he was on vacation.
And as I was hearing this, I realized I was in his exact position.
I’ve been back in California for the past few days to visit some friends and family but sacrificed my routines to be here.
At home, I play tennis several times a week for, at the very least, two or three hours at a time.
I eat six meals per day and have my eating schedule thoroughly planned out because I’m trying incredibly hard to gain weight. I go to the gym four times per week so that diet isn’t just becoming excess fat but showing on my body as muscle.
I have my own car, my own condo, my own system of doing things around my home, all completely gone the moment I’m in another state or country.
Since coming back to California, I’ve been eating significantly less because fitting six meals in each day is a logistical nightmare. I don’t have my car with me and I don’t want to burden my friends by having them drive me to the gym, so working out is off the table too.
All of this weighs on me while I’m supposed to be having fun. As hard as I try to stay present, a part of me is too excited to return home.
With just one more day to go, I’m so ready to return to my routines, hobbies, and systems. I have it good there in Arizona.
This is the same bittersweet feeling I had when I was in Breckenridge, Colorado just a couple weeks ago. It was an incredible time and I swear I have never have laughed more in a single four-day window as I did in that snowy cabin.
But I’ll tell you the same thing I told one of my friends on the airplane as we departed Colorado and headed back home.
I’m so glad to be going home. I miss it and that’s a damn good sign.
It tells me I’m happy there and that I’ve got a good thing going. We should feel homesick while we’re away.
Bring me back home, because that’s where I want to be.
Not a thing wrong about that, missing home.
I used to travel a LOT for my jobs. Every week or two waking up in a different place. It started out great. I loved to travel around the world, to all different types of countries, peoples, cultures. But at the same time I lost contact with friends, as you remind us, lost my routine workouts, diet, and in a way, forgot who I really was.
It knocked me over one morning when, waking up in another hotel room that looked like every other hotel room, I didn’t know where I was. I had to open the night table to get out the phone book and there it was: Durban, SA.
So realizing finally I the weekend off, got into the Mercedes and headed for the Drakensburg in search of diamonds and natives. Found both. The diamond was an excellent blue oval weighing over 10 carets. Should have bought it. At that time, still during apartheid, it was only R3000.00, around $5500.00. It would be worth over 20 times that today.
Then, to stave off a grumbling stomach, stopped into a hotel in the mountains. Got great curry. Met lots of folks. Played darts all afternoon. Then one of the lot, a park ranger for the wilderness, took me to see a native village. Picked up some (actually about 5 lbs.) of goat jerky that was utterly fantastic. Also some goat sausages, smoked. Then back to play some more darts and have really friendly girls invite me to spend the night instead of driving the hundreds of miles back to Durban.
Yes, I was missing home. I also miss the good old days . . .
Too cool for school. 🙂
Hmm, I’ve had this problem as well. Something that’s worked for me: deliberate planning. Before going on a trip, analyzing my past behavior to deliberately plan when and exactly how I would adapt my system to my new environment. For example, if going to the gym isn’t feasible, I look up some calisthenics/bodyweight workouts to do instead. Though it’s different from the normal schedule, some form of workout is better than none at all.
“Though it’s different from the normal schedule, some form of workout is better than none at all.”
True that! Gyms are everywhere, so that probably won’t be too hard to figure out regardless of where I am. The tough part is the diet!