once laughed at routine
now knew crucial if wanted
a life worth living

From the article, ‘My mind was shrieking: “What am I doing?”’ – when the digital nomad dream turns sour by Emily Bratt

I knew coming home wouldn’t be easy. As the plane from Ho Chi Minh to London descended, I looked out over England’s patchwork fields and was unsure what I was returning to or for. Those first few months were spent flitting between my family home and more pet-sitting stays. Friends and family wanted to know “my plan” and I felt more diminished each time I told them I didn’t know. The reverse culture shock was acute. I discovered that people don’t ask about your travels because the experiences are too unrelatable. Plus, a relationship I had formed overseas, and was trying to maintain, was nosediving and it was hard to discuss it with friends, since they didn’t know the person or the context. I was disoriented, but also felt as if I had never been away.

Gradually, the idea of having a space that was mine, neighbours to get to know, regular exercise classes to attend and a coffee shop where they knew my name felt exciting. I had once laughed in the face of routine; now, I knew it was crucial if I wanted to build a life worth living.

Perversely, many digital nomads end up doing a global tour of Starbucks. “It was the one place with reliable wifi,” says Matt, 25, a fellow British writer and on-off nomad since 2019. “I hated that I was in there, but finding somewhere to work was always difficult.”

Lots and lots of thoughts here.

But the phrase that comes to hit home for me was I discovered that people don’t ask about your travels because the experiences are too unrelatable.

I thought back to a party where I found myself, to use Tom Wolfe’s term, in a ‘conversational bouquet’ where the discussion between the two other guys focused on, one, which side of Italy was better to drive down … the Adriatic Side or the Mediterranean side? – and, two, – was it better to rent a car when in Europe or BUY a car when in Europe and use a broker to sell it once your trip (which I guess was at least a month long … I hope) over.

I had little to contribute aside from historical commentary on the Appian Way and the Campaigns of World War 2 that were fought on those roadways.

Needless to say I discovered that people didn’t ask about my travels because the experiences were too unrelatable.

I tried to interject my thoughts on driving down the east coast versus the west coast of the State of Michigan … Alpena through the Thumb to Port Huron or The Long Blue Edge of Summer as we called the Lake Michigan coast, but I found no traction in the conversation.

I had a real guilty pleasure that to read that these world travelers, these digital nomads, found themselves doing a global tour of Starbucks because it was the one place with reliable wifi,

Well, I can do that.

I mean, I can sit in any number of Starbucks and use the wifi and have the same view of the world as these digital nomads.

Oh well.

I don’t travel much.

If offered the chance to travel, I would most likely ask if I could take the time to go visit and play with the grand kidz.

I do do this though.

My office is about 5 blocks from the Atlantic Ocean.

At lunch, I’ll change into shorts and T Shirt and walk down to the beach for a bit.

Often I am stuck in a group waiting to cross the street to the beach walkway and someone will say to me, “What a great week to be here!”

I look them in the eye and agree and smile then say, “I’m here on my lunch.”

But back to the article.

Routine.

I have long said that one of the things I loved about college was the 4 month length of the term and the syllabus that was handed out at the start of the term.

The syllabus would list the 100 books I had to read, the term paper I had to write and the dates of the mid term and final.

I had no idea how I would get all that done.

But I knew, that by the end of the term, it would be done.

It was … great.

Out of college no one hands out a syllabus.

I get quarterly goals but in all the years I have been working, I can’t remember anything that was considered a quarterly goal at the start of the quarter, that was around at the end of the quarter.

Something else would have replaced it of course, but that points to the syllabus and lack of routine.

Most Professors had taught their courses for years and the syllabus was un changeable.

You could depend on it.

You could get into … a routine, a rhythm.

Working for the last 40 years, boy howdy, do I miss it.

The current administration pushes something they call, strategic uncertainty.

Oh, for routine.

And a life worth living.