Back home after a solo trip of one year
I (38M from Spain) have travelled for almost a year solo in Asia and it has been a wonderfull experience. Met people from all around the world and learned a lot about myself. At some point I felt like it was enough and returned back home. I was able to return again to my old job, but I´m having some difficulties finding an appartment.
After two months being home, I´m starting to doubt if this is the life I want to live again. Everything has stayed the same during my absence and I feel like there should be more to life than this. This feeling has made me think about my near future. My original travel plan for a year was to do 6 months in (South East) Asia and 6 months in Central America, but I loved Asia so much that I decided to stay there during my whole year. Now I feel like I should do also my solo trip through Central America and even a bit of South America. Since I spend less than I estimated in Asia and I still have enough savings, I can easily do a year of solo travelling again and get back home with still having some savings .
My mind is now in doubt about what to do. Fill my backpack again and go for a solo trip to Central America starting in January already and this time leave my job definitely and go find my luck in the world OR stay at home and try to make a more pleasant life here. Social pressure of family and friends is also an issue, since they don´t understand why I´m not buying a house and stay put to get a wife and kids.
It´s a battle of heart and mind right now. I understand that the backpackers lifestyle is not sustainable indefinitely, but I feel like now I have the option and I want to enjoy life the most I can. Life is short and we don´t know when it can suddenly end. I loved the feeling while travelling of waking up in the morning and not knowing what I´m gonna experience that day and what people I´m gonna meet. Also, I would love to meet someone to share my life with and right now I feel I have more chances of meeting new people travelling than back home. Out there I also felt like a different person: more open, more secure and liking this version of me. That´s everything my heart is telling me. My mind is telling me to try it again in Spain or even move to a new city in Spain which is a bit more international (living in a small city) to build a new life here. Also, to work on myself to make a good life and to apply everything I learned while travelling about myself.
I want to make a decision for January since that would be that a good month to start a trip from Mexico to South America weather wise. Of course, in the end it´s my decision but I would like to hear some experiences of other people after returning back home from a long solo trip and how their life changed or even stayed the same like before.