Traveler Blues

    Feeling depressed while traveling can really affect a trip. So can breakups, witnessing injustice, family fights, or more serious things such as being kidnapped or dealing with death while abroad. As immensely difficult as it may be, I urge you to not let these dark emotions paint your travel with an even darker color. What's going on in your head or even right in front of you is not your only option. Not exactly everything can be taken from you by someone else, or the earth or politics. The manner in which you react is yours and yours only. Your attitude to the conflict you are facing is the one thing you have that your oppressor cannot win. 

     That being said, if your gut instinct is to get out of a situation and fly home to mourn or heal, listen to yourself. You know yourself best, and I'm not here telling you to push your limits. I myself bought a ticket home on a backpacking trip I had saved and planned for months on after graduating college due to a breakup. But what I can share with you is that this time around, I strive to make traveling my healing.

     I can mourn if I need to while atop a mountain I’ve hiked. I can pray in churches around the world instead of in bed alone, curled up under my sheets. I can journal and read on trains or in cafes instead of at home. I can continue to grow while alone because ultimately it has made me a stronger woman to take care of myself. Especially while halfway across the world, separated from my family and friends. The support will be there for you at home, but how about challenging yourself to find it within you? Teaching yourself new healthy coping mechanisms, realizing there are people to be met, different foods to try, nature to repose in… all of these things, which may wind up exciting you (more so than if you had just given up). 

     General things I have learned through adversity: you cannot hold on to the past forever. Just long enough until you get sick of it and have to let go in order to survive. Trust me it’s worth it to wake up tomorrow and get out of bed in hopes that you might catch a glimpse of goodness or beauty in the world (because it’s there). Secondly, don’t be oblivious to the answers you’ve already received. To forgive but never forget is something that I stand by passionately. Nobody enjoys making the same mistakes if you’re the one who put yourself in the situation. But forgive yourself and others in order to get backtrack on towards the light.