The REAL journey...
You have chosen one or more destinations, you have established a budget, a duration, you have drawn up an itinerary. You have probably stored your personal belongings with relatives or friends, you have rented your apartment or sold your house. You left everything, you boarded a plane with a few clothes, a minimum of products, a few usual medications and a lot of excitement.
You leave behind your normal life, your routine, your habits, your material desires, your superfluities. You say goodbye to your parents, your extended family, your friends and your social networks. You were entitled to comments, judgments, envy or even jealousy, but a lot of support and encouragement. You have created feelings of fear in those closest to you but you know it's useless, everything will be fine. Once on board, on the way to “far away”, you breathe. You breathe in freedom and breathe out worries. You fill yourself with passion, you reject responsibilities. You look out the window and there you realize what is happening. This is when all the efforts of the last few months, all the budgetary concessions, the planning, the research and the organization necessary to put your normal and stable life in order like you put a bunch of memories in a small shoebox, so that it wisely awaits your return, takes on its full meaning.
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You have discovered cultures, each more different and original than the last. You have visited unique places on land, in the air and underwater. In the caves and in the mountains, you have absorbed all these sensations down to your fingertips. You have met people who are loving, curious, ingenious, smiling, hard-working or nonchalant, or simply different. You've tasted everything...or almost.
All your senses have been stimulated in turn. Nauseous odors from shady neighborhoods disturbed your nostrils at times while the fragrances of flowers from large gardens or small merchants charmed you. You have been surprised several times by the overused horns of metropolises and have appreciated the crowing of the rooster when you wake up in the countryside. You learned about religions, traditions, norms, processes, or the complete lack of it. You also learned a lot about yourself. At times you even surprised yourself. You have been proud, you have been fearful, nervous, disoriented. You were dazzled, enchanted, disappointed or disturbed. One thing is certain, you have changed. You grew through all these experiences, you learned and you questioned everything. You have remade the world in your head in a thousand and one ways, a perfect world where every point of perfection in every culture works together harmoniously.
You questioned your own world at the very moment you grew bored of it. Because yes, you missed your loved ones. From your worried but interested parents who, although they are happy for you, still have this fear that the chick will not find the nest. Your friends missed you and they missed you too. You couldn't wait to come back and tell what you experienced, saw, smelled, felt. You want to pass on to each of them a concentrated piece of experience to share extraordinary sensations with those you love.
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You are now filled with memories and nostalgia mixed with a lot of anticipation and excitement. A very strange contrasting feeling. One minute you're thinking about your loved ones and dying to hug them. The next minute, you see your adventure end. You're on the last page and you're definitely not ready to close the back cover. All these experiences, these visions, these feelings, these emotions will now be part of the past. It fills you with sadness. Soon you will have to take out your box containing your normal little life tidy in the closet to replace it with this pile of memories heavy with emotions.
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You come back.You go on your reunion tour and see everyone you love again. You exchange, discuss, hug and realize how well cared for you are. The first weeks you have meals, outings, aperitifs and a few photo demos. You relive your adventure through your stories. Your discussions are lively and lively and your interlocutors are interested. But you're not completely back yet. You feel yourself still living through your experiences, you are the traveler, the bohemian, the one we envied, the one we encouraged, the one who worried us. Your head is there, but your heart is still traveling.
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The one that sends you back into your routine as quickly as you got out of it. You take your normal little life out of its box and realize that everything you left behind hasn't changed. Your world has stagnated while you have completely transformed.
You recover your possessions and your superfluities, which no longer have any importance. You find yourself in a house, apartment, condo or borrowed room. No matter the place and its space, you feel that there are too many around you. Accustomed to living on little, in little. You have traveled with friends or a spouse and suddenly you each return to your individual daily lives. A close bond turns into routine and obligations.
Your stories no longer interest anyone and yet they still inhabit the majority of your thoughts. Your photos and videos are well classified, now only files. Quietly, you get back into rhythm and start breathing again. Now you breathe in worries and responsibilities and breathe out passion and freedom.
