So here’s the thing, everyone tells you to go travelling but what nobody tells you is the bit after the ‘happily ever after’ – The blunt ending that struts in straight afterwards to castrate it all. All those perception-altering, mind-blowing experiences. The heart-achingly beautiful sense of natural freedom you had as you struggled through communication and cultural barriers. That feeling of our oneness as a human race that thrives in you as you tried desperately to break those barriers down. The realisation that, in many situations there are people who are genuinely ready to help you. The revelation that there are people like you whose minds are blown away by the beauty of the natural world and its creatures. The eye-opening moments when you come face-to-face with real-world problems. All of these things, mixed with your lack of understanding of whatever culture surrounds you, make a potent recipe for a humbling, character changing shift in a person; one that’s both unfathomable and unwavering. 

Yeah. So that happens. And then this happens…

You return home to an exclamation by everyone you know, they ‘can’t believe it’s been a year already!’ Despite how they told you how much they missed you and couldn’t wait to get you back every day since you left. Not only that, but one of the more common initial questions will then be, ‘so, what’s the plan now…’- and, wait for this earth-shattering moment – ‘…have you got yourself a job yet?’ 

I’m sorry – I’ve just spent months intensely synthesizing cultural, ethical and natural realisations that have changed me to my core. Yet you want to know about something that hasn’t even happened yet? You want to ask me when I will surrender back to the system and the state, begin paying my earnings back into their systems and start consuming like a good little worker bee once more?! 

But I snorkelled with whale sharks, with turtles and manta rays. I went diving with sharks, lionfish and octopuses. I flew in a tiny plane above the Ningaloo Reef and witnessed all the colours of the ocean as if it were a moving water-colour painting. I watched a mother humpback whale and her calf making their migrational journey using the reef as a safety barrier. I swam amongst coral that could be up to 8,000 years old – a single living organism that’s survived 8,000 years! I watched turtles struggle out of the current and crashing waves, making their way up a beach by moonlight to lay and bury their eggs. 

But yes. Let’s talk about the man-made corporate structure I’m expected to snuggle back into. 

It’s hard. Because ultimately, that’s what happens. You have to find more money to go and escape the money making greed, to be the free spirit you were born to be.

Having come back to a wealth of family and friends I find myself in a better situation than others perhaps, but I’m 3 months in and I can’t say it’s getting any easier.

I got the job, returned to the city and found a house to live in. It’s really difficult. Nothing is the same, I feel dissatisfied with the state of the nation. Work isn’t the problem. I worked a lot whilst I was away, it’s who we’re working for and how little they care about their staff’s mental health or the environmental impacts their companies have.

There’s a mentality to keep everything in a bubble and remain in control. To make the people feel inadequate and dissatisfied. To feed the money back into the consumer-targeted commodities, designed to make us feel healthier and to look wealthier; incredibly none of them truly manage to do either of these things for most people. 

Once you wake up to the World’s real commodities, the real connection… It’s like you took the red pill… There’s no going back. Aristotle’s examined life it is. It is hard to open your eyes to life, but I’d rather see now than walk along blindly in repetition for years to come.