Going Home for the Pandemic Does Justice for the Soul

As I typically like to write posts that are aimed to benefit the reader, whether it’s tips, insight, or simply photos of a place or experience, I guess this is more of a long over due journaling sort of a deal. And if any of you out there have been away from home during the pandemic and miss home, this is for you. For those just reading because you enjoy my content, ALOHA. Here it goes…

Covid travel — Frisco Airport..En route to the Carolinas from Honolulu

April 2017, I set off what would be an extended open ended voyage that would bring me to X & Y plus Z ….Z being New Zealand. With the possibility of returning home, the intention was one way with a great chance of not coming back home for a while. I had traveled across the USA by train, hitched Big Island Hawai’i, got injured, stayed here (Hawaii), left for a year in New Zealand, five additional months across the Pacific Islands & at the time of writing, been two years of living in Hawai’i. My intended path beyond that included additional Pacific Islands I haven’t been to yet and Australia with a foggy vision of far Southeast Asian countries of Malaysia, Indonesia, etc etc.

That path has obviously changed dramatically having falling in love along the way calling Hawai’i home and a resting ground to save funds while also admittingly finding a belonging in the land of Hula. But after a point, I knew there was a time I had to go home to visit. After all in December 2019, it had been two and a half years since I left home and my family.

PANDEMIC STRIKES China that same month, and the months following, pandemic would straddle the globe with tight grips. Borders closed and hopes to travel again went from 10 to 0…FAST! I could have visited home prior to the pandemic but sacrificed that to tap on extra travel funds I needed. But add the stresses and anxieties of the pandemic with lockdowns, negative news, social distancing, quarantine showering on a daily basis, even that hope to see family fell through.

Last month I made the choice to go home not only because I needed to use vacation. And not only to see my family again, but my spirit & soul was longing for it for far too long. Early November, I caught flight from Honolulu-San Francisco-Chicago-Asheville & an hour drive later, I made it home. Nearly four years had gone by and I hadn’t been back. It was like my room was stuck in 2017 and my mind and spirit had experienced 10 years of travel and life in a matter of three and a half years. If that doesn’t make sense, read this quote:

So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.
Terry Pratchett

I got to see my family after a year since they came to Hawai’i. But nothing is like being with them within the confined of your home. We have three dogs, two of which i missed insanely, and one I had met for the first time. Two cats I also reconnected with, one of them being my dear Goldi, my cat I rescued 10 years ago in Florida. I walked in the house and before I could call her name, she cried out for me. like not a day went by for three and a half years. We enjoyed outings like a short hike, a couple of restaurant favorites for me to try, a drive up the mountains, and a short getaway to Dollywood in Tennessee. (I’m still shocked we did that with rising COVID cases.)

But it’s not what we did and where we went that I was anticipating the most. It was the Anthony Perez, personal, deep rooted re-centering of self kind of trip I was anticipating and needed for so got damn long. Arriving home the first few days was just weird and obviously felt so out of place. My old car I had sold to my step dad went from 70,000 miles to 125,000. Several lots in the community had been built on or cleared for building. My room had been rearranged and cleared up to make dusting as easy as possible. Having gone through endless bins, drawers, clothes, and shelfs to get rid of shit I really didn’t care to have anymore.

It was this deep cleaning and hard work that really allowed me to go to the core of my very existence. Reminders of myself, why I am here, and what purposes I serve in life. I had gone through so many things I’ve saved in my life, from homework assignments in elementary, Six Flag stuffies, coin collections, books, photos, old harddrives, & my favorite of all, 9 years worth of travel I had brought back home or shipped home to keep. From beer bottles with sand, pamplets, magnets, maps, international currency, you name it. It was these moments scattered across 15 days back home that brought me so much peace during a time of chaos. But even without the Pandemic, sometimes in order to know where we wish to go, we need to look back at where we have been. And this trip defined that on so many levels.

Here are some pics of basically, some of my life.

I can live anywhere in the world, from Portland, Oregon to the banks of the Nile in Egypt, there truly is nothing like home and not only the peace you can have in a vibrant world, but the re-centering of who you are. Leaving home was hard as saying goodbyes has always been difficult. But overall, I felt some semblance of completion. I have no idea what future travel will look like for me, where and when that will happen. All I know is, is that when that time comes, I will be ready!