I have been fortunate to complete two round-the-world trips and experience the freedom and joys of long-term travel. Taking time off to travel meant that I was free to go and do what I wanted when I wanted. I was stimulated everyday by new discoveries: new destinations, cultures, people, food. It was amazing!

Three years ago I returned from my latest, one-year, round the world trip. I was very excited to reunite with friends, family and my home. The prospect of returning to a routine however, was a struggle. But my lifestyle back home required a rent, a job and bills to be paid. Living the 9 to 5 life made my amazing trip suddenly feel like a distant memory. The lingering sensation of fullfilment had also vanished, transformed into moments of nostalgia.

I started to believe that the happiness I had felt during my trip was not eternal and perhaps it could only last if I continued travelling across the globe. I was ready to drop everything and hit the road again. Pack a bag and give away the key of my apartment

But part of me also knew there were reasons I had been drawn home, reasons that motivated me to stay.

I felt caught between a rock and a hard place, or rather between a cushion and a soft place, because neither option, home or travelling, was unpleasant, but I wished I could enjoy the benefits of both at the same time.

Fortunately, my job required me to travel around the country quite a bit and it was during one business trip that I had a revelation. I didn’t go far, just a few hours away, but I realised I had never been to that part of the country. My forehead was glued to the train window, so I could take in all this new landscape.

I was taking pictures.

I was in awe.

I was a traveller again!

Yes, here I was, still within Switzerland’s borders, yet I felt the same exhilaration than driving through the countryside of Panama.

It is then that I realized that it was entirely up to me to feel the joys of travel. I did not need to go to faraway, foreign places or to travel full-time. It isn’t the distance or the place that matters, it is in you. It is the way you look at it and choose to experience the land, places and people around you.

Of course, it is particularly easy to feel stimulated in an unfamiliar place because everything is new. But it is also possible to feel that delight of discovery in places you know if you choose to look at them differently.

After that business trip three years ago, I began to view all places I went differently, I was (re)discovering my home, my roots.