Reflections on Nomadic Living

I think that home is where I am physically located and where my heart is. I never really pinpoint anywhere nor put a number for a location to be my home. Technically, I simply have no roots as even my family moved quite a lot and only later in life they choose a place they feel secure and accepted to be their permanent residency. Safe to say, I followed the same pattern except what ideal to me is a lot different than them. Now, a little bit older, I started understanding what I needed in life and the ideal living situation.

_{A digital painting I did that I eventually printed out. A tribute to the "2nd" Home.}

Personally, I have a pattern where I would travel 6 months in each and recuperate another 6 months, both mentally and financially. During these 6 months, I would try living in different islands, cities, around Indonesia for quite a while to taste what it’s like living like a local. For a note, Indonesia is massive, each place offers a lot more different culture, living pace and beliefs. Recently, I tasted living in Thailand and Laos for quite a while and they opened me up to a place where I could practise what I believe in without much worry. But there was just something missing about it. Still though, I love both and thought to make them my 3rd base with a chance to relocate permanently. That decision led to the idea of moving back with my mom and closing my apartment permanently.

It was simply based on how the international airport was a lot closer in my mom’s house than my apartment. There are a lot more flight routes internationally and making it a home base sounded perfect. However, since I ended up getting my finances straight and counting every single penny, living with my mom was not ideal.

Living isn’t about money but also about your own sanity. Considering that there are a lot more distractions at home, drama, and logistics were a lot more difficult to find, I ended up spending a lot more money. I feel like building a business there was simply a dead-end, the innovation ratio and customers that are willing to pay slightly more were pretty difficult to find.At the same time, my mom enjoys a laid-back approach to business. It wasn’t my style and everyday there’s always something to bicker about. That being said, everything felt a lot better when I managed it from afar.. She also developed some sort of unhealthy codependency that I had never seen before. While usually if I am far away, she would do everything just fine and it was much easier to supply her with capital, dealing with customer services and marketing. She was also a lot more resourceful than when I was there. As my frustration grew and my landlord was mentioning that someone was about to move into my room, I panicked.

I went back with the fastest train I could find and told her to cancel the new tenant. Since technically I’ve been there for almost 7 years now, she was fine with it. The place I am living has everything from starbucks, pork, beer, and airport. Except, the airports service lesser routes and flights are way more expensive with long connecting flights to the airport nearby my home. But since now I intend to stay low and focus on my studying, being in this city even the first few weeks has proven to be a lot more financially positive and a great experience.

As I mentioned many times, the place I am living though can be a bit like a jail where you don’t know whether it’s day or night but I learned to work through it by meeting up with my friends at least once every two weeks as a lot of us are busy people. In the past, my only problem was that I got way into living secluded life and leading a hikikomori lifestyle. But now that I have a sort of healthier mindset and learned my lesson, this place isn’t bad. I could even see myself making it my first home base had it not had too many earthquakes and close to an active volcano. Rent, food, and almost everything is so reasonable compared to living with my mom. It’s not because I did a rough estimation but I really ran the numbers on the spreadsheet and it’s a lot cheaper.

Looking back, I knew that eventually it would be very difficult to leave this place. As I could also practise what I believe in without anybody nagging me. And I came to the conclusion that I think a single person should have 3 bases. 1 is where you meet your inner family, the 2nd is a place that supports you to make money and the third one is where you can socialise. Until I meet a partner that has all three, that’s how I would approach seeing a "home".