Hi everyone, I’m a french man of 31 years old going through a pretty intense depression after spending much of my 20s on the road. I am now in australia in a beautiful coastal town where life is sweet and people are incredibly nice. Thing is: I have been awfully depressed for the last year. I’ve seen most of my friends settling down, establishing themselves in France or australia long term through intense efforts to obtain their permanent residency getting married etc. I always saw myself living abroad, but never made so much effort to settle down anywhere. I’ve only worked in hospitality in the various countries I visited after obtaining my master’s degree in business (which I feel now is what people do when they don’t know what to do for a living). I consider myself open minded, speak three languages fluently, but I always had trouble with anxiety and self confidence. Now that I feel my travel life to be over, I am wondering what to do next. I feel like moving back home with my parents and look for a job somewhere in Barcelona or Toulouse where my family is. But I’m afraid my resume will make me unemployable anywhere. I’m also scared about my financial situation and my capacity to readapt to Europe after living in countries where life was so much easier. I feel like I just need a bit of shared experiences or encouragement. Anyway, it’s good to let it out.
Feel you! I moved back to the states a few years ago and it has been really difficult.
Adapting to the culture after over a decade away in my late 30s, buying everything and never having money for much, trying and failing to change careers and winding up with a crap job, the car culture that I can’t afford, trying to mend broken relationships that have drifted away from me as people have settled, feeling like an alien because there’s a ton of normal stuff I don’t understand, and withering away because my once vibrant social life has all but disappeared has left me in a huge funk.
However, it had to be done because travel had run its course for me as it does for many people in their 30s, and even though I’m not sure about this life, or continuing life on the road again, I know that I’m ready for the next phase, but I don’t exactly know what that is and that seems to be your problem too. So, I’d say do some soul searching and see if you really want to move home and decide if it’s something you feel like you should do, or if it’s something that you really want to do because you’re ready to tough it until the boring life (and trust me it’s really boring) becomes something rewarding.
Anyhow, hand in there bro! There are a million paths for everyone, and I think you, and I have to find one to take to find the rewards that travel used to give us again.