You've done it- you have traveled the world and now are relaxing at home. Pretty amazing huh? You'll have memories you will keep forever and friends for a lifetime. Now many backpackers wonder what the next step is. After the buzz of welcome back parties fades and you are sick of telling the same stories, what do you do next?
Coming home from traveling around the world is the hardest part. There's a mixture of emotions: excitement, anxiety, fear, joy, and nervousness. After the celebrations is over and reality sets in, people are left feeling a little depressed. You spent a long time preparing for traveling, a long time traveling, and then suddenly, it's over. Just like that. It's as though someone slammed on the brakes to your life and, for many people, that can be kind of saddening. Coming home is more about dealing mentally than doing anything in particular.
Here are a few methods that can help you cope with those emotions and get yourself moving again:
Stay Busy- If you sit around thinking about the good times, you're only going to resent being home and get depressed. Go out, get a job, get a hobby, join a gym. Even if you are super psyched to be home, the first few weeks are always rough as you adjust back into "normal" society. The best thing to do is to stay busy. One great way to stay busy is to be a tourist in your own city. Since you have been gone so long, things have probably changed. Go explore your town like you would Paris or Sydney. You're bound to find something new and you'll be able to feel as though you are back on a holiday while adjusting to home.
Plan Another Trip- If the thought of staying home is killing you, get out! Plan your next trip. Even if you never go. Go start looking up destinations. Buy a guidebook. Plan some routes. Look at flights. You'll get in the mood and you'll get excited. Even if your trip never materializes, at least you will be taking your mind off from the reality that it's time to settle in one place for a bit. It makes coming home seem like a pit stop and not the finish line.
Get a Job- Getting a job ties into staying busy. By getting a job, you can take your mind off things and begin to put all your energy and new found sense of adventure to good use. It also helps you replenish your bank account so you can get to traveling again.
Read Travel Blogs- Because if you aren't traveling, live through the people who are traveling and get the motivation to get going again or even get motivated.
Arriving home from the road is about adjusting back into the world you left and focusing on taking what you learned and applying it to your daily life. Many long term travelers end up going again, afflicted by a virus that will never be cured. Others stay home because their expedition taught them that what they wanted the most was what they left behind at home. Either way, we all come home eventually and we'll need to know how to cope with that experience.
The public education system has taken its lumps over the past several years. School violence, drugs, failing educational scores, overcrowding classrooms, over-emphasis on standardized test scores, unskilled teachers, lax laws protecting the rights of disruptive students, and other factors have decreased confidence many parents have in the public education system. Looking for a solution, many parents enrolled their children in private schools and found more of the same. Desperate times sometimes need desperate measures to provide relief. Today, more than at any time in history, parents are looking toward the option of home schooling to ensure their children get a quality education and find an academic springboard to a bright future.
The reasons are nearly countless. With the proliferation of the World Wide Web, parents have the option to capitalize on the educational benefits the Internet can provide. In reality, the Internet provides access to nearly the sum total of all human knowledge. With resources in schools vastly limited, the opportunity for students to learn from home is plentiful.
One of the biggest reasons that parents choose to home school their children is due to the social environment in schools. In recent years school violence such as the Columbine fiasco and other school shootings, although rare and highly publicized, have given parents food for thought. Today, there are many schools that have metal detectors at their entrances. Police are required to roam the hallways to ensure the limitation of nefarious activities within schools. Fighting and bullying is commonplace. Home schooling is a way that parents can limit their childs exposure to a stressful environment.
Drug use among school-age children has skyrocketed in recent years. School has become a place where drugs are sold and used. Since schools are so vastly overcrowded, teachers and administration often have difficulty monitoring the activities of students. Home schooling not only gives parents the opportunity to dictate the academic curriculum of their children, but it also gives them greater control over the crowd their children associate with.
One of the biggest reasons parents turn to home schooling is the fact that they believe the education their child is getting is inadequate. Home schooling provides the opportunity for parents to generate their own curriculum according to the strengths and weaknesses of their child. With the emphasis on standard test scores and the importance these tests present for a childs future, parents want to ensure their children have access to a quality education.
Parents choose to home school for many reasons. Some reasons may be more important than others to different parents. In the end the reasons dont really matter. What matters are the decision and the proper execution of a home schooling plan?
Both Nomad Matt & Kris Koonar are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Nomad Matt has sinced written about articles on various topics from Gardening, Family Travel and Gardening. Matthew Kepnes is a lifelong backpacker. Visit his website about how to on a budget and adjusting to. Nomad Matt's top article generates over 720 views. to your Favourites.