Since Covid happened, I learned a few things:
If your Embassy asks you to come back to your home country, it means you won”t be able to come back with commercial flights anytime soon. And if you refuse, don’t complain afterwards. Or you know, do it in your head.
There will always be people telling you not to do what you are doing even though you didn’t ask for their opinion. It’s not being rude ignoring them. Insulting them might be though. So you know, do it in your head.
Friends and family are everything, especially when you are travelling full time, most of the time on your own. My parents, respectively 73 and 77 years old, keep amazing me everyday. When I thought our relationship couldn’t be cooler and stronger, my mum started sending me cool places in the world to go visit, and my dad started telling everybody I was saving the world while exploring it.
Backstreet boys is the coolest Boy’s Band ever. Don’t listen to anyone who says otherwise. It’s not related to Covid at all, but I needed to mention it.
If your heart tells you to do something, do it. It knows better and doesn’t have any fear of what could happen or if it’s reasonable to do so.
And least but not last: Don’t plan anything.
Yes, don’t plan anything. A few years back, I used to plan a lot of things while traveling. I would start looking at the booking app as soon as I got my plane ticket, things to do while visiting a country, organizing people’s wishes, booking restaurants to eat at…And then I grew up — or got older, call it whatever you want — and changed life completely. I left behind all the material things and embraced the fact that the only things I would have with me while traveling will be human experiences, feelings, and basically only things that I would define as something that matters in my new life.
At first, I kept a few of my old habits, like trying to organize ahead. Not all the time, but still: a few countries listed here and there, the beginning of a schedule to visit these countries, people I needed to call on a weekly/monthly basis…
Then Covid happened, and everything changed. I understood life was not going to happen as I planned it, and I decided to let it go. No more bookings, no more Airbnbs, no more lists, no more “but I had something else in mind”, no more “I won’t have time for that”, no more deadlines nor flight back. I don’t even have to change my plans since I don’t have any. It’s not always easy, because not knowing where I go can sometimes be frightening. Or having to explain myself to others who don’t think the way I do, trying to reassure them even though most of the time; they are the ones being scared (I’m trying not to do that anymore, but we’ll go back to that later).
Since then, it weirdly feels easier and lighter. Even though it’s a bit hectic from time to time — well okay, most of the time — I feel like I actually can do anything, because I don’t actually have to. And it has been so rewarding. People I met who became a part of my non-plan, places I visited that I never heard of before, calls I didn’t answer because I didn’t feel like I had to anymore, parties I didn’t go to because I said I didn’t want to. I’m sure I missed on a lot of things, but it doesn’t feel that way.
I’m always super excited about things, but not planning these things made them so spontaneous, they will stay on my mind forever. Either if they are sweet or bitter memories.
I won’t lie, I still have to — sometimes — be a bit organized, about visas or PCR tests for instance. But the door to the unknown is always wide open and it helps me staying relatively cool when something unexpectedly bad happens. And I’m not saying that because I lost both of my credit cards right after withdrawing some cash at the ATM a few days back. Things happen, and I’m sure they do for a reason.
Sometimes karma gives you beautiful things, unexpected encounters that will make your heart shiver. Sometimes it takes back when you expect it the least: I believe that’s how it works.
And I can now say that I’m happy to lose a few credit cards and shillings from time to time if this is what it costs me to live the life I have now.
I’ve got insurance, bitch.
