WANDERLUST VS. THE EXPAT

While you are reading this, I am thoroughly enjoying a well-deserved week with my face in the sun at my favorite spot in the country: the Beach in Noordwijk. That has actually been my regular spot in Noordwijk for years, the seaside village where I have been coming since I was young. For years, my parents had a little house here, which always served as a holiday home whenever we were back in the country. And I loved it. Not too far from Amsterdam, manageable in terms of tourists (if you avoid the Keukenhof season) and when you have been able to travel so much and lived in other countries, it is nice to have a sort of ‘home base’.

Because I have lived so much abroad, the question sometimes arises whether I still have that ‘wanderlust urge’. As in: discovering as much of the world as possible. Yes, of course I still have that, but I do notice a big difference between the way I prefer to explore the world and how others see it.

‘it's nice to have a sort of ‘home base’’

Before I get the comment that I am generalizing, I want you to know that I base this purely on the people in my life. The friends who, like me, are expat kids and my friends who have grown up their whole lives in one country. I notice that the way of discovering the world is quite different. The friends I have from the past, who are also ‘third culture kids’ (if you are one, you will definitely recognize these things), generally prefer to move to another country to discover it. A two-week holiday here and there is fine, but traveling around a country for a few months? Well, no. They (and I) would rather move there right away for a year, or maybe even longer. ‘To immerse ourselves in the country’, as my expat friends and I always put it.

And then I have my friends who have lived their whole lives in one country and who prefer to backpack for months from place to place to see as much of our planet as possible, and then just come back to their fixed base. I find that quite an impressive difference and don't get me wrong; both options are perfectly fine, because the world is too beautiful not to make the effort to see as much of it as possible.

This is just something that has caught my attention lately, especially when I met new people and told them about how I grew up. So now comes my question to you: would you rather save up to travel around the world for a few months and see as much as possible or do you have more of a desire to really move, live in another country and truly experience it as one of the locals? This discussion intrigues me, so let me know.