Stuck in the future

After coming back from Finland in August last year, we finally cracked the code in Australia. Following few awkward weeks of avocado picking in the outback, we scored really nice jobs in a beautiful town in the tropics. We rented a house, got some hobbies and made a few friends. Finally, we’d have a break from the forever hustle of being a backpacker. 

Soon enough, the rainy season approached and we wanted to move on. After working and living in one place for 3 months, we embarked on a journey down the East Coast. Everything was nicely planned, we were to have 6 weeks of vacation before the wine harvest was to start in the South.

The only issue was: when living a nice life in a tropical paradise next to the greatest coral reef in the world, one tends to get used to using money quite recklessly.

On the first week of the vacation I found myself thinking about the future, how regardless of the situation now, after this vacation again we’d have no money. Sure, everything was fine in the moment, but I couldn’t stop thinking about the risk of ending up like in the beginning of the year – totally unprepared for bad times, just trying to survive through the bad choices we had made.

It can be hard to be present, when the future seems uncertain. The less you know the harder it gets: If you don’t know where you’ll spend the night, it’s urgently in your mind. If you don’t know where you’ll be in 5 weeks, it’s less urgent, but still consuming.

This has become one of the biggest lessons we’ve learned during our time as full time travelers, as we’ve realized, that we can live an unpredictable and adventurous life and still plan ahead. We can think about the big picture, book flights and set long term goals and still live in the present moment.

Now we have a plan until Autumn 2025. It doesn’t mean our lives are predetermined but we don’t need to have fears for the future or ruminate on our choices. It also saves us from running aimlessly around the world. There’s no point in budget backpacking in Asia if we’d really just want to go to that one luxury hotel we saw once in Southern France.

Looks like we’re finally starting to learn how to be nomads, homeless full time travelers.