Roxanne's experience as a digital nomad
In this post, Roxanne Leslie Laurido will be sharing her digital nomad experience with the community while reflecting on the pros and cons of long-term travel.
Through her inspiring story, she will share personal observations and important takeaways – Lessons that have value for all of us!
While Roxanne’s observations can be common among full-time travelers, most of us forget to consider these aspects before embarking on a digital nomad journey. So keep on reading…
The pros and cons of traveling full-time as a nomad
1. Short- vs. long term relationships
Traveling:
I tend to develop temporary relationships when traveling. They can even be called relationships of convenience. If I don’t know anyone in a city, it’s nice to make some friends while I’m there. It can even be exciting to meet so many new people.
The problem with this is, that they are just that – temporary. If I really like someone, it’s shitty to have to say goodbye and not know when I will meet that person again since we don’t live in the same city. It is also exhausting to constantly have to meet new people and explain your life story over and over again. This is the main drawback to making friends while traveling.
My experience traveling with Remote Year
The good part of doing Remote Year for the 4-month trip was that we were in the same group the whole time, so we traveled together from city to city. I would definitely recommend this setup to build deeper relationships while traveling.
on a coffee date in CDMX."
At home:
At home I am able to develop very strong bonds with my family and friends. I didn’t realize how important these were until I didn’t have them anymore on the road. Having someone you can trust that you can talk to in challenging times is key.
I feel bad because when I don’t live in the same city as my friends or family, I am bad at keeping in touch with them. I tend to just do my own thing if I am having fun and forget about keeping in touch with my family, unfortunately.
Now that I am back in Boston, I am being very intentional about spending a lot of time and keeping in touch with my family and close friends, as well as checking in on those that don’t live in Boston.
2. Novelty & Excitement
Traveling:
The best part of long-term travel is being able to see new parts of the world on a constant basis. On my five month-trip, I had so many amazing new experiences and saw so many wonderful places. I would only be able to do this so much in such a short period if I were on the road 24/7.
At home:
Unfortunately when working, you only have the ability to travel when you have vacation days (unless you do what I did and become a digital nomad temporarily). This has its drawbacks. You spend most of your time slaving away at your desk and not so much time at the beach, haha.
3. Being on-the-go as a Nomad vs. having stability
Traveling:
Being on the road 24/7 is unpredictable. Sometimes you don’t know where you are going to sleep that same night. Luckily with Remote Year, we had our apartments arranged each month. My favorite was in Antigua where we lived in a beautiful traditional Guatemalan home. It was kind of exciting to arrive each month in a new city and a new apartment, creating a new life each month.
At home:
Living in Boston, and renting an apartment, was good to give me stability. I enjoyed working from home and going out almost every night in Boston. Connected to the stability of having family and friends, it was nice in the sense that my life was pretty predictable, but it was still really fun, especially with all the salsa dancing!
There’s something nice about living in the same city that you grew up in – everything is familiar, but at the same time Boston is a very dynamic city so new bars, restaurants, etc. are popping up all the time.
I was sad when I left my apartment on August 31, 2021, but it was also exciting to start a new chapter of exploring Latin America for the next four months with Remote Year.
My conclusion after living the nomadic lifestyle for five months
While long-term travel is exciting and fun, I ultimately learned that it is not for me. At this point in my life, I would probably only travel for 1 month at a time max.
It is great to have options like Remote Year (1+ month) to choose from if you are seeking a community while being a digital nomad, trust me, it is WAY better than traveling alone.
I would rather sacrifice time on the road to build stronger relationships with my friends and family.
Contribution by
Roxanne Leslie Laurido
Marketing professional
My love for travel started when I was a little girl visiting my mom’s family in Ecuador.
As a teenager, I explored a love of languages and picked up Spanish, French, and Italian. It came in handy as I started to travel the world (now at 42 countries!).
In late 2021, I took a five-month trip throughout Latin America as a digital nomad.
You can follow my journey through Instagram & my personal travel blog.
