Reflections on the Digital Nomad Lifestyle After One Year of Traveling Abroad

Last Updated on October 7, 2023

July 8th, 2018 was the night I left the U.S.A. to begin traveling around from one country to the next. When I stop and think about all of the days that have passed since then, I’m overwhelmed by the thought of all the amazing (and not so amazing) memories that come rushing back. I’m living a life I never could have imagined for myself.

The past 365 days (well I guess it has been slightly more now, but nevermind that – I’ll be addressing that later on within this post) have been absolutely wild. Honestly, I have so much to sit and blog about. So many stories to share. The very thought of it all takes my breath away. Despite what you might see on Facebook and Instagram these days, you have to remember that for most people, social media is nothing more than a highlight reel. That’s what I miss about blogging: in so many ways, it feels more real.

Living as an expat can, at times, be anything but easy. If you’re travel blogging or working as a digital nomad, you face a whole slew of additional challenges.

The most frustrating thing about travel blogging is that if at any point you experience writer’s block and spend too much time thinking rather than writing, life does not pause -even for a second- and it becomes extremely easy to fall behind on your storytelling. Life goes on, you continue to experience new things, and all the while you end up with an even longer list of ideas that need to be transcribed into text. Travel blogging may seem glamorous and even sound easy but it is still work and it requires time.

One of my greatest challenges this past year has been finding time to write as much as I used to while now bearing so many more responsibilities than what I used to have while living at home or in college. Real-life is demanding and takes some getting used to. I am aware that I have to get better at certain things and I trust that with practice, I will. I think it is all about mastering time management and figuring out how to balance out your responsibilities. Of course, that is easier said than done.

Kaizen is the Japanese philosophy of small, continual, incremental improvements. To trust in Kaizen is to believe that we are all capable of getting better with focused attention one day at a time. Making a decision to work on improving something and then following through with your actions.

I’m mainly writing this post because I know my writing has been a bit infrequent as of late and I want to change that. Keeping my blog up-to-date was always a point of pride for me and to tell you the truth, it is actually somewhat shameful and difficult for me to face the fact that I’ve dropped the ball in recent months. I’ve been disappointed in myself because I know I’m capable of so much more. It is frustrating to feel like you let things slide at a point when your blog was really gaining momentum. Considering how important this website is to me, I would even say that blogging less often messed with my head and has made it harder for me to get back into the habit of writing since whenever I attempt to start again, I mostly feel overwhelmed.

With moving abroad and transitioning into a new life here in Spain, I’ve had a lot of things to work through mentally. A new life in Europe has meant dealing with everything from learning to navigate new regions, dealing with bureaucracy, working longer hours, studying new languages, cooking for myself, cleaning up, finding time for loved ones, trying to make new friends in new places, trying to sustain some type of social life for myself, and the list goes on. Keeping my website up-to-date has, at times, gotten lost in the mix and that’s something I’m not happy about. I’m going to make writing more of a priority as it has been in the past, namely by adhering to a stricter writing schedule.

In recent weeks, I’ve been feeling inspired to write once again. I know it will be better for my spirit in the long-run and I’ll feel better if I begin to write more often, just as I once always would.

If you are still there and read this, thanks. 🙂