Hi Travelers,
It has been almost 5 years since my last entry. Many things had happened but I will try to summarize. After our year of full time travel, we had decided to come back to the U.S. to live. We had a few reasons. First, we really miss our cats. Like really miss them. We found ourselves going to cat cafe very often while abroad because we miss them so much. We probably went to almost all the cat cafe we can find while traveling. I also felt really guilty making me brother take care of them for us. Second, we missed cooking and eating our own food. I tried my best to book places abroad that comes with a kitchen, but sometime it just wasn’t possible and ended up eating out alot more than we wanted. Third, we felt it was time to refill our bank account.
Our plan was to go back to work for a bit and then start traveling again. We took up some contract works in the beginning and then ended up getting full-time jobs in the Bay Area in California. This was a good place for us to settle down for a while since the living wage there was high hence higher wages and that helped us save alot more than other places. In the beginning, we enjoyed returning to a routine but the burn-out started a few months after covid shutdown happened. March 2020 was the beginning of the shut down and then a couple of months after, our area had a huge forest fire. For about a week, the sky turned red and air filled with smoke and ashes. We both started to feel stuck and desperate to travel again but that wasn’t possible. I started to become really sad which leads to anxiety and never felt the inspiration to post on this blog. I also stopped taking pictures at this time and that made my depression worse. I went in a loop of feeling too tired to want to do anything I enjoyed. But I told myself I can’t keep going around that loop or else I don’t know what I would have done to myself. So instead of feeling sorry for myself, I tried to remain optimistic. I reminded myself to be grateful for still having a job and my family members are alive and well. I was also grateful for the many quality time Jaron and I had to spend together. Over that first year of shutdown, we discussed what our future should look. What we want from life. Where we want to settle down. The funny thing is even with so many discussions we still never came up with any solid answers but we know what we don’t want for the future. We knew we didn’t want to live in the Bay Area and didn’t want to continue with our jobs. We knew we wanted to keep traveling but at a slower pace with a home base to return when not on the road.
As of now, we had moved out of the Bay area and I am taking break from my job. I have had time to see family and friends I haven’t seen in years and that makes me really happy. I’m discovering new hobbies and re-discovering old hobbies I had forgotten. I feel truly grateful for this time but also know I have worked hard to deserve it. I also realized that we don’t need to figure everything all at once as long as we keep doing what makes us happy and content. I hope to keep posting on here as I get to travel more. And wherever you are in the world, I hope that you are doing well.
Happy travel,
Trang
