Ao longo do meu caminho conheci muitas pessoas que viajavam por tempo indeterminado, por já terem passado pela “experiência da volta a casa”. Todos, sem exceção, diziam que voltar a casa não ia ser fácil depois de tanto tempo a viajar.

Eu não acreditava e pensava que era um disparate.

“Claro que vai ser fácil voltar ao conforto de casa, à familia e aos amigos”. Chegar a casa depois de mais de um ano a carregar uma mochila de 15 kilos às costas e ter tudo pendurado no armário e dobrado nas gavetas. A minha cama, uma sala de estar confortável, uma cozinha totalmente equipada com facas afiadas, uma toalha de banho grande que realmente seca o corpo, uma casa de banho limpa, banhos de água quente, o meu carro que me leva a qualquer lado quando me apetece. Realmente não nos falta nada. Centros comerciais cheios de lojas, supermercado com as prateleiras repletas de comida, um frigorífico cheio de coisas que nós gostamos.

Nem nos apercebemos na abundância em que vivemos.

Viajar e voltar a casa permite-nos valorizar estas coisas que damos como adquiridas no nosso dia-a-dia. Por vezes é mesmo preciso sair da nossa bolha e voltar a entrar para dar valor ao que temos à nossa disposição.

Foram tantos dias vividos em lugares diferentes, culturas novas, rodeada de pessoas com mentalidades diferentes, pessoas novas, experiencias únicas, conversas que marcam, horas em autocarros, horas a planear coisas…

Hoje, o pensar que tudo isto são memórias, é duro.

Todos vivemos uma vida e no final são só as memórias que ficam. A vida é assim mesmo. Viajar é incrível porque são tantas as memórias que criamos num curto espaço de tempo. É importante processar tudo, rever cada momento e pensar de que forma é que eles nos tocaram, nos tornaram pessoas melhores. Eu gosto de refletir nos aviões. Porquê? Marina Abramovic no seu livro “Art into Theatre“, explica isso muito bem:

“And my main concept is the space in between. You know, the time when you leave one country – you’ve called everywhere you take the plane, you go to the train station, to wherever. And then you go to somewhere else. But before you arrive, that space in-between – that’s the space where it is most intense. It’s the space where you’re open, where you’re sensitive, vulnerable – and anything can happen. And another space I propose is the waiting space. We always consider waiting as losing time, but waiting is extremely important. It is where we need to put emphasis, because to wait is to deal with doing nothing. Doing nothing is exactly what it’s all about. Cage says, we have to go to boredom, only through boredom can we come to another side. So the space in-between and the waiting space – that is where it happens”.

É neste espaço de espera ou o espaço in-between que eu gosto de refletir. Depois dos meus vários momentos de reflexão, percebi aquilo que me tinha levado a viajar e como esta experiência me mudou.

É tão fácil voltar a casa e esquecer aquilo que aprendemos, tudo pelo que passámos. Quando estamos lá fora, de viagem, de mochila às costas, achamos que quando voltarmos a casa nada vai ser igual. Nós não vamos ser iguais. Mas quando se chega e tudo está igual, é tão fácil voltarmos àquilo que éramos, às nossas rotinas, à vida stressante de casa-trabalho, trabalho-casa. Prometi a mim mesma que não voltava para uma profissão onde esta fosse a minha vida.

Percebi que era um momento de mudança, o meu momento.

O que me mudou mesmo foi o facto de não querer levar a vida assim. Durante 377 dias senti-me livre, como nunca me tinha sentido. Vivia um dia de cada vez, sem saber onde ia estar amanhã, sem planos.

É natural que muita coisa esteja igual quando voltamos a casa, mas o importante é não esquecer como fomos felizes e não deixar que a vida de casa nos arraste para a rotina louca de antes. Podes até chegar à conclusão que o que queres é mesmo isso, voltar à vida que tinhas. Ótimo, desde que consigas chegar a alguma conclusão já valeu a pena o tempo que tiraste para ti.

Nunca te esqueças de tudo o que viveste, das conversas que tiveste, das paisagens incríveis que viste e mais importante que tudo isto, como te sentiste livre pelo Mundo.

Margarida. X

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english version

Along the way I met many people who traveled indefinitely. The majority had already passed through the “homecoming experience”. Everyone, without exception, said that coming home would not be easy after so much time traveling.

I did not believe it and thought it was nonsense.

“Of course it will be easy to return to the comfort of home, family and friends.” Arriving home after more than a year carrying a 15-kilo backpack and having all my clothes hanging in the closet and folded in the drawers. My bed, a comfortable living room, a fully equipped kitchen with sharp knives, a large bath towel that really dries the body, a clean bathroom, hot water baths, my car that takes me anywhere when I fancy, etc. Shopping malls, supermarkets with shelves full of food, a fridge full of things that we like. We don’t even realise the abundance we live in. Traveling and coming home allows us to value these things which we take for granted in our day-to-day life. Sometimes we have to get out of our bubble and re-enter to give value to what we have at our disposal.

So many days have been lived in different places, new cultures, surrounded by people with different mentalities, new people, unique experiences, chats that touch you, hours in buses, hours planning things.

Today, thinking that all of these are memories is hard.

We all live our lives and in the end it’s just the memories that stay. Life is like that. That’s why traveling is incredible because we can create so many memories in a short time. It’s important to process everything, to review each moment and to think about how they touched us, how they made us better people. I like to reflect on the planes. Why? Marina Abramovic in her book “Art into Theatre” explains this very well:

“And my main concept is the space in between. You know, the time when you leave one country – you’ve called everywhere you take the plane, you go to the train station, to wherever. And then you go to somewhere else. But before you arrive, that space in-between – that’s the space where it is most intense. It’s the space where you’re open, where you’re sensitive, vulnerable – and anything can happen. And another space I propose is the waiting space. We always consider waiting as losing time, but waiting is extremely important. It is where we need to put emphasis, because to wait is to deal with doing nothing. Doing nothing is exactly what it’s all about. Cage says, we have to go to boredom, only through boredom can we come to another side. So the space in-between and the waiting space – that is where it happens”.

It is in this waiting space or the space in between that I like to reflect. After my various moments of reflection, I realised what had taken me to travel and how this experience changed me.

It’s so easy to go home and forget what we’ve learned, everything we’ve been through. When we are out, traveling, backpacking, we think that when we return home nothing will be the same. We will not be the same. But when you arrive and everything is the same, it’s so easy to return to what we were, to our routines, to the stressful life of home-work, work-home. I promised myself I would not go back to a job where this was my life.

I realised that it was a moment of change, my moment.

What really changed me was that I did not want to live life like that. For 377 days I felt free, as I had never felt. I lived one day at a time, not knowing where I was going to be tomorrow, without plans.

Naturally, a lot of things are the same when we come back home, but the important thing is not to forget how happy we were and not let the life of home drag us into the crazy routine of the past. You may even come to the conclusion that what you want is that, to return to the life you had. Great, as long as you can come to some conclusion it was already worth the time you took for yourself.

Never forget the moments you lived, the conversations you had, the incredible landscapes you saw and more important than all this, how free you felt when you were out in the world.

Margarida. X