Travel - A foreign concept post-pandemic

Who would have thought that one can feel a feeling as if it was the first time again?

This is what I told myself upon embarking on my long-awaited holiday a few weeks ago. It was the little things for me; packing lists, last minute shopping trips, picking out clothes and finally sitting on my suitcase to stuff as much of my belongings as humanly possible into it. These are of course all very materialistic things and cannot compare to the actual thrill that rushes through my bones at the mere thought of being able to travel somewhere new again.

After (what feels like) an eternity of being locked up in our own country, I had forgotten the effects travel had on my creativity and inspiration. In the pre-pandemic world, travel was not only taken for granted but in my experience never an adventure we fully let ourselves be immersed into. We were always distracted by the lives we had left back home and could never disconnect truly from what was happening elsewhere. However, we are not entirely to blame for this as travel was so readily accessible and “common”; the thought of it being the last time we could do so never crossed our mind. Until the unthought-of became our reality.

In a post-pandemic world (taking into account that we are far from “normal”) travel has taken back its charm and uniqueness. I recognised this when I hopped on my first flight post shutdown. It was a holistic experience, both physically and emotionally; I had forgotten how tiring travelling was and toll it took on my stress levels. Previously, I would have never thought twice about sitting next to two strangers on the plane. Now, all these questions were rushing through my brain and creating a whirlwind of thinking (also known as: anxiety). Although, the excitement of a new location, new places to explore and creating a new routine were slowly suppressing all the voices of worry.

Once in the new place, I found myself much more present in the moment and connecting with my new surroundings. As much as I was overwhelmed by all the newness, I was excited to document it all by sketching, collecting or photographing. I rarely felt an urge to check up on my world that I had left behind at home because I knew that this feeling could be taken away from me at any time. With that came this over-enthusiasm of doing a million and one things in one day to be fully immersed in the new location.

With travelling also comes the unmatched feeling of coming home to what you know, like and wouldn’t trade for any fancy hotel room. Coming home after being away even just a few days, allows you to re-gain perspective on what you thought you knew inside out.

The home post-travel is looked at through a different lens which may be tinted slightly differently to when you left or focused on different angles you didn’t know existed.

That is the true meaning and effect of travel.