A little context if you care to listen
So there I was, watching something at the end of the day to get my mind off work and into my night-time routine. As I've mentioned in previous posts, YouTube is the number one source of entertainment in my household because honestly, we never had a paid TV channel plan, nor did we ever feel the need to. We solely rely on streaming services and YouTube.
I've also mentioned before that I enjoy personal development, art creation, and small business content quite a lot, so it's no surprise that I got inspired watching Stefanovic's channel, and this video in particular
If you're new to the blog, you might not know that I became a sort of "forced" digital nomad ever since last April. After one and half years of being long-distance with my partner, I decided to leave the big city I was living in to follow him as he got working on the road as an infrastructure-focused engineer. I'm lucky enough that I have a 100% remote job that allows me to move around without sacrificing my career, so I thought I might as well take advantage of that.
Because of this situation, I got to see and experience a side of my country I wouldn't have otherwise. I got to see the modern-day countryside, the vast sugar cane and soy fields that once were full of cattle (although I still saw of lot of cattle farms), the music, and the local culture of some places which were vastly different from what I was used to. Not every place was a favorite in my books, but it certainly brought me more perspective and showed me the bubble I was living in.
Moving a lot, many times not knowing where to until days before the move, also made us start to think about how we were going to build our future together.
Do we want kids? Do we want our kids to live like this? Should we settle down in a big city like the both of us grew up in? Is the education system as good outside the big urban centers of our country? What's the cost of living where we want to live? Do we want to live in a small city in a big house we built? Am I gonna feel too isolated and alone when I can't come with you? Should it be near my family, yours, both or neither? Do we want a cold or warm place? Near the beach or the mountains? Do we have the funds to do it? How much would we need? And it goes on...
As you can tell, it's not an easy feat building a future that brings us the sense of a home, especially when there's no guarantee of how long or if I'll be alone at all through all of this.
So how does this relate to intermittent nomading?
The simple concept of being an intermittent nomad is to have a base you can come back to and rely on, where you stay for the majority of your time, but also have the ability to go out and explore when things feel stuck. Is trying to find the balance between structure, routine, and practicality and exploration, adventure, and curiosity.
The more I think about this concept, the more it makes sense to my reality, as I've been sort of already living like this. The catch is that I don't yet have the base. Not a strong one at least. My "base" currently, is the beautiful two-story grey house I rent and am now living alone in (with my dog, of course). But that can change in a minute and it doesn't feel stable or worthy of relying on, right?
Being a digital nomad and having the ability to travel all over, and work from wherever can sound like a dream, but when it comes to the reality of it, it's not as perfect as one might imagine.
You have timezones you need to adjust to but also be there for your clients, you deal with loneliness, and you're most likely away from your family and closest friends for extensive periods. Getting into a routine can be hard, as it is keeping consistency and having daily moments of productivity.
Might this be my answer?
The concept of intermittent nomad might be a very powerful answer, and one I'm leaning more into, but it sparked the base blocker for me.
I guess I'm sharing this to give you and myself a bit more context into the internal and external challenges my partner and I will be facing in the next months and years.
What are your thoughts on being a digital nomad or an intermittent nomad?
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