What’s Wrong With Staying Home?

Most people who read travel blogs ogle and become envious of the nomadic lifestyle they portray, and why not? Every day, you can read articles about being in various countries or cities, and having perfect social media photos and videos that they share online. But honestly, there’s more to life than this.

Have you ever wondered: what’s wrong with not traveling?

What if we don’t want to travel? What if we just want to chill at home, read a book or a magazine, or *gasp* binge watch TV shows or movies all day? What if we just want to have a normal life with a 9-5 job and not be a digital nomad? What if we just want to go shopping and go looking for deals? What if we want to stay put in one place? What if our passion is to just play video games?

Obviously everyone has a lifestyle choice, and for most travel bloggers, it seems unthinkable to be watching a lot of TV while also traveling a lot. After all, you only live once, right? And if you don’t start now, then when will you?

Here’s the truth: Peter and I love to travel, yes, but some days we just chill out and not do anything at home. In fact, we do the things above – we watch TV, we go to the movies, we play video games, we read books, we go shopping, and oh my gosh, we even have a house we bought for ourselves, and a rental property too. Oh, and did we mention that we also own a dog (Rosie the shih tzu), and we actually like doing nothing sometimes.

We’re extraordinary yet normal people

Peter and I are essentially an anti-thesis of the nomadic lifestyle. We own all these things yet we want to travel a lot too. Does that mean not having a place to call home? Not really. As mentioned, we own our own house which has *gasp* stuff! Stuff that doesn’t fit in our suitcases, complete with furniture and everything else. We have tons of stuff, to be honest: books, clothes, appliances, dog stuff. You know that saying:

“I’d rather have a passport filled with stamps than a house filled with stuff?”

Wait, what if we can tell you that we have BOTH a passport filled with stamps and a house filled with stuff? Does it seem like a dream come true too? How are we doing it?

 How do we have both the passport filled with stamps and the house filled with stuff?

First off, it takes a LOT of productivity and ninja skills to pull off having two lives: a life of living a nine to five as a cubicle dweller, coming home at the end of the day to our house AND being a traveler.  It also means compartmentalizing stuff into various parts of your brain and calling upon them on different hours/times of the day. Think folders in your computer: that’s exactly what we’re doing. You know your computer is powerful enough if it can handle processing two things at once, right? Well, I’ll give you a real life example.

Just yesterday, Peter and I had a great Thanksgiving. It was a holiday so our 9-5 persona wasn’t called upon. However, in the back of my mind, I was already thinking of our next blog post – which turned out to be this. At the same time, I was thinking of our other money-maker ventures (reselling stuff), and how to optimize it during Black Friday. Oh, and we managed to buy a computer game (Sims 3) which I ended up playing for four hours in the evening. Not to mention screening tenants for our rental property: and well, you get the drift.

Did I think playing the game and reading my graphic novels was a waste of time? A bit, but I thought about my day and realized I did something productive and I was happy. What point am I getting at?

It’s okay to relax and pursue mindless pursuits

Again, one of our tenets in this blog is that every single day is a journey that should be cherished. If you traveled today, then woohoo, good for you, you experienced something new. If you worked today, that’s fine too, but what did you do after work that you consider fun? If watching a TV show gave you enjoyment for the day, then cherish the moment. If you preferred to read something, whether online or offline, then good for you, treat that as an escape to a different world or you may have learned something new. If you decided to play a computer game, then great, you may have opened yourself up to other worlds and gotten your reflexes an exercise too.

If you can see all the examples above, everything can be a learning opportunity or a chance to escape to a different world than the reality you have right now. Does it mean escaping? Perhaps, but sometimes if there are things in the real world that plague you, it is all right to retreat to the other worlds every now and again just to get a feeling of happiness.

Not everything is all rainbows and butterflies, and we know that.

In Summary

We are trying to show you that there is more to life out there. Regardless of what you choose to do – whether you binge on TV shows, blogs, books, games, or whatnot, there is a certain level of happiness that you can derive from it IF done in moderation. You can also pursue other opportunities and passions or hobbies too. You don’t have to live your life in envy of other people. Your life is yours, do whatever makes you happy.

We’re all different and not everyone has the same path written for them. If some people become famous and have a few thousand followers then great, if others are just chugging along, then also great. Don’t compare: live, and be happy with your pursuits!

So to answer the question: What’s wrong with not traveling?

The answer is: Nothing!

As long as you do what makes you happy, and if you can derive something useful out of it, then all the better.

On a side note: this reminds me of my time back in the Philippines when I would do nothing most weekends and binge watch on various TV shows. But hey, I discovered more destinations by watching travel shows, and random facts about other things from watching National Geographic!