While sniffling, coughing, and not doing much, I started revisiting many of my life choices and the things I did in the past. It’s weird but when I am sick, my mind wanders and I have to say, a bit more smarter than when I am not, oddly. I left a few long comments here and there and my brain feels a bit less cluttered. It’s like I have that AHA moment that I can finally revisit some of the choices that were pushed in the back of my head. One that bugs me currently is certainly my habit of traveling that changed drastically from 2017 to today, 2023. It feels like a decade already but it’s not that far off. It was only a few years ago but in that span of time, I have changed.

In the past, I could randomly catch a flight, end up at someone’s apartment, and talk to strangers which were simply outside of my nature. I guess now, I can say I like that alter ego much more than this depressed ass-kid trying to figure life out. But in the end though, I did what I had to do, traveling with more intention as I documented some of my travels into a series and visited many beautiful temples under an architectural mini-essays. And at the same time, I documented many things more than what I did in the past when I wasn’t documenting any of it. I have to say, travel blogging has only grown in me the last couple of years when many weren’t doing it and it was a smaller niche than today. These days, I think it’s overrated that anyone can go wherever, document it online, and there’s no more hidden gem anymore. The world is open for anyone who has money. Although, I always appreciate a unique take of a place and their experiences except not many are doing that. That also speaks volume as to why I still bought travel magazines. It’s all because they offer unique insights to otherwise famous places that are visited by dozens of people.

In my most recent blog, I mentioned that I’d be traveling less which actually is just my way of repressing the things I do too much. It’s a problem itself because I feel like that decision is based on people's judgment about me. I have heard that I traveled too much and can’t settle down. If I am traveling too much, how am I able to show the things I worked on? I know people my age get married, have nicer jobs, etc but what if that’s not my happiness? What if by wandering, I can figure life out rather than sitting and feeling down about the things I can’t change? Sure, now I have parents to take care of but they were fine without me in the past and they should be even now. I certainly don’t want my youth to be robbed because I think 90% of it has been spent on worrying about what I can’t do, what my family will think and many other life hurdles that were thrown my way. So, why not live a little and immersing myself in it?

While I revisited many of my past travel stories, I realized how far I’ve come and noticed the level of engagement was certainly different. Nowadays, I get more engagement than in the past which is something I am thankful for. There are many imperfections here and there but I certainly love comments that are left in my travel posts. The most common one I get is mostly that my writing makes people feel as if they’re traveling with me. To me, that’s such a huge praise because it’s not easy writing something like that. So, it’s always an extra encouragement to me to produce more content like that. I think that apart from books, food, tech and movies, travel is also something I am thoroughly passionate about and can’t stop talking about. It’s why they’re always something that tends to be longer than the regular blogs I am writing.

I also don’t think we have travel tips or a travel community that doesn’t talk about the places and experiences while in it. Traveling is more than just the place and there’s much to it, such as the gears we use, the tips, the travel hacks, and finding ways to get the best deals. That’s also why last year, I decided to create a Nomad Hive community for that. It’s the community where you can talk about anything other than the place you’re visiting and also your remote work experience or a digital nomad lifestyle. For now though, it’s where I post some of my past experiences and websites I use but in the past, I hope more people subscribed to it and share their experiences as digital nomad and remote working become a thing and that we certainly have our preferences and the knowledge we can share from it.

Things have certainly changed and even these days with the community that I intend on growing more. Although I am not sure if people around here are into the idea of that, why not give it a try, right? It’s time not to gatekeep travel information and make it easily accessible for others too.