When I first came home from an extended stay in Italy, everything felt different. My bed wasn’t as comfortable as I’d remembered, the food tasted a bit off, and I was constantly wondering why I wasn’t allowed to buy beer (I was only 17 at the time). Most of all, I felt different and home felt “the same.” In the end, it took me longer to readjust to life in Chicago than it had to settle in with my Italian host family in the first place.
While I didn’t know it at the time, I was experiencing “reverse culture shock.” Culture shock is that feeling you get when you spend time somewhere drastically different from your home; reverse culture shock is the lesser known readjustment period when returning from extended travel. It’s pretty common and talked about often on the backpacker circuit.
If you’re bracing yourself for the comedown after a big trip, these tips will help you prepare and, hopefully, make the transition easier:
Bring Back Things You Can Use
Outside of T-shirts, the souvenirs people typically bring back from their travels are useless — trinkets that soon collect dust. How about you try bringing back things you’ll actually be able to use for awhile? You could even start a collection (coasters, pint glasses, etc.). The point is bring home something that serves a purpose and can open a door to share stories, which are the currency of many an adventurer.
This doesn’t only go for physical things, either. If you learned any cool life lessons, make sure you don’t stop using them just because you’re home.
Find New Adventures Around Town
If you look hard enough, you can find adventure pretty much anywhere. This even goes for your boring, old hometown where you think you’ve done everything under the sun. Guess what? You haven’t. Not by a long shot. There’s always a way to put a new spin on things and all it takes is some creativity and perspective. Bringing along a couple friends helps too.
Try checking out that restaurant you’ve always walked past or make it a goal to talk to a stranger for five minutes everyday. Every person and place has their own complex story and if you dig for them you’ll find a gold mine of new experiences. That is the traveler’s spirit.
Share Your Story
You’re just coming off of the most amazing experience of your life and there’s no way you can just keep all of those stories bottled up inside. Sharing your experiences — either through writing or talking about them — will help keep the memories fresh in your mind until you’re ready to dive back into work and responsibilities.
Did you get to travel to Morocco by agreeing to load up and unload a cargo ship? Remember that time you went diving and saw a dancing cloud of parrot fish? Tell those stories (and listen to the stories of others!). If you’re lucky, maybe your adventures can book you a movie deal.
Keep In Touch With Your Travel Buddies
The best thing about traveling isn’t the stamps in your passport, the food, or even the great sights — it’s the people. The people you encounter on your adventures tend to stay in your memory the longest. Whether it’s the crew you went with or someone that you met along the way, be sure to check in from time-to-time. It’s always good to maintain relationships and you never want to burn any bridges. Maybe someone can spare a couch the next time you’re headed their way? A network of good friends around the globe make your future travels a whole lot easier.
Move On To Whatever’s Next
After all of the reminiscing, storytelling, and picture posting there comes one ultimate truth to travel: The trip has to come to an end. This is something we often want to ignore, but acceptance arrives eventually. That doesn’t mean that you can’t accept that one trip is over while planning the next one, though!
Remember the goals you set before you left. Remember what you planned to do when you got back. If you wanted to write a book, get to it. If you wanted to go back to work or school with a new fire in your belly, let it burn. If you just wanted to relax and let things happen on their own, take it easy. Time stops for no one, keep on adventuring (no matter what that looks like)!
