It has been almost four months since my husband and I left home. I still can’t believe that. So far we have been to Thailand, Hong Kong, China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. How does it feel you may ask. Better than I thought. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t expect to it to be terrible. I just didn’t think I would enjoy it this much. My initial fears included regrets, unemployment, home sickness and “did I pack enough?”

Regrets – I don’t regret it whatsoever. I cannot be happier with my decision. Let me tell you a secret: I said I am happy now, but I cried like a baby when we had to leave our house. On move out day, I was stressed to the max. There were so many things we had left, things that either needed to be donated or thrown away. It took us from early morning until about late evening to clean everything even though we had started to clean house a week before. Let me tell you, we aren’t hoarders. Well, at least not terrible hoarders. But it took us about two or three weeks to sell our stuff. Another week or two to box up stuff we couldn’t sell and stuff to donate. We had Goodwill and Good Sam come by our house four times. No joke. The donated boxes seems to increase with every trip they made. Even at the last day, we had to make about four or five trips ourselves because we underestimated our valuables.

Unemployment – I didn’t hate my job, but my job was what it was: a job. Not a job I was in love with so I was excited to take a break from it. But the thought of not having a job really freaked me out. It is ridiculous to say it now, but I was really worried that I would feel bored and worthless without my job. That was a legitimate fear I thought of because I spent more than half of the time I am awake at work. Thankfully, after four months I can honestly say that I don’t feel bored or worthless at all. Everyday I woke up, I got to do what I enjoy. I follow my heart and my stomach through all the cities I visited. Besides just doing the normal touristy activities, I also spend part of the day to edit photos and articles. Some days, I walk for 10 hours. Some days, I take time off to focus on editing photos.

Homesickness – I have been living on my own since I was very young. I am very familiar with being homesick and can cope with it pretty well. I do miss being in our house from time to time. Our first home. Our cute three bedroom home.

“Did I pack enough?” – I bought an Osprey Farpoint 55 Travel pack. I wanted to get a smaller pack because our research told us the smaller the better. Let me tell you, it is a small pack. I have four pair of shirts, three pairs of pants, one pair of shorts, 14 pairs of underwear, 7 bras, two small traveler pouches for makeup and bathroom essentials, one pair of flats, one pair of sandals , and one pair of flipflops. Now, I don’t think I am that high maintenance, but a girl needs more than that for one year of traveling. I wanted to bring more, but I had to throw out a few items because I overestimated the size of my pack. Sometimes I wish I had bought a bigger pack. But on the days we have to haul ass, like the day we missed our flight even though I ran like my life depended on it, I was glad my pack was small. As of right now, my pack weighs about 12 kg, not including my detachable day pack.

I would wholeheartedly encourage anyone; young or retired, to try this nomadic lifestyle. Three months, six months, or two years. Whatever you consider is long term. If this is something you have thought about doing for a while, please do it. The hardest part for me was the pre-trip. The actual trip is much more enjoyable.