Finding Home as a Digital Nomad

WY_CO
WY_CO
Aug 8, 2017 · 4 min read

By JILLIAN BROADDUS

I may only have 27 days with We Roam under my belt, but I know one thing for certain: My definition of “home” has already changed.

It all started when I first met my fellow Roamers during our welcome party in Prague. For many, the answer to the question, “Where are you from?” held a peculiar conundrum. Was “home” where they were born, where they most recently lived, where they had spent the most number of years of their lives…or none of the above? We all self-identified as “digital nomads,” which, by literal definition, refers to one who has no permanent abode. And, for many of us, this classification holds true: We sold our cars, ended our leases, and traded in our permanent addresses for a backpack — or, in my case, the biggest possible rolling suitcase I could find.

However, as I left Atlanta, my extreme excitement at the prospect of traveling the world for 12 months was equally rivaled by my fear of leaving the only city I’d ever truly called home for 24 years — a city that was familiar and comfortable and routine. However, this fear quickly dissipated as I met my fellow Roamers and learned that home isn’t necessarily just a physical place.

We all share so much in common — an adventurous spirit, a love of travel, a sense of independence — but we are just as different as we are similar. Together, we hail from 7 different countries and have (probably) visited almost every nation on this planet. There are coders and writers and photographers and teachers. There are entrepreneurs, freelancers, business owners, and corporate employees. There are people who have won Emmy Awards, others who have invented products, some who have coded apps, and many who have already changed the world in which we live.

We also all have comparable yet unique stories of how we ended up here. For some, the death of a loved one caused them to — as one Roamer put it — “carpe fucking diem.” For others, the need for a change of scenery — whether due to a monotonous career, a painful break-up, or simply a mid- (or quarter-) life crisis — made the decision to commit less of a choice and more of a personal responsibility. And for yet another, an inspirational fortune cookie at an opportune moment caused the final pull of the trigger.

My story of ending up here is none too exciting: a combination of a location-flexible job and an insatiable wanderlust led me seek out We Roam. Since I became a “digital nomad” two years ago, I had traveled alone, I’d traveled with friends, and I’d traveled with family. Now, We Roam has given me the best of all three worlds: I am traveling on my own with strangers who instantly became friends and are certainly and rapidly becoming my second family.

As we all initially made plans during our stay in the Czech Republic, we would often say, “I’ll meet you at home… I mean, my apartment.” Within weeks, the autocorrected addendum began to gradually wear off. We were home. Then, as we began to pack up our belongings and cross the border into Germany, it only became natural that Berlin was now “home.” And, as we look forward to our future stays, we all can’t help but speak in these sorts of more permanent terms: “I can’t wait to live in Croatia.” Not visit. Not vacation. Not holiday. We can’t wait for Croatia to be our next home.

So, as we continue living life through a series of one-way tickets to destinations largely unknown, I have begun to discover that “home” doesn’t have to be a permanent dot on a map (not to discount Atlanta, where I miss my dog and Chick-fil-A and loved ones every day). Rather, maybe it is a succession of pushpins that follow our footsteps around the globe. Or perhaps “home” cannot be found on a map at all, but rather within a group of people. Maybe home is simultaneously nowhere and everywhere. Anyone can travel the world, but not everybody gets to do it alongside a group of such inspirational, like-minded, and fun-loving individuals, who can push one another personally and professionally and are always down for a mid-day gelato break or a spontaneous weekend trip to Belgium. Not everybody gets to do it with a group that makes any and every city feel like home, even for a nomad.


For more information on We Roam, check out this FAQ PAGE.

If you’re interested in becoming a Roamer, you can submit an application here!

WYCO

The WY_CO global members community offers an exclusive pass for select remote professionals to travel, work, and live in the world’s most dynamic cities, one month at a time.

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WYCO

The WY_CO global members community offers an exclusive pass for select remote professionals to travel, work, and live in the world’s most dynamic cities, one month at a time.

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