How do you deal with the distance and estrangement from friends when you travel?

Every new trip brings new people, new places, new experiences. In the space of a moment, of a breath, I meet people I can consider my family, and the next day we part after exchanging ideas.

A lot of people criticize me for not keeping in touch, for not sharing enough, and that's where this blog came from. To share with those I've loved for a long time, or those strangers I meet for 1 hour, 1 day or 1 week.

You are almost 37 to have come to my blog in February 2023 for 147 articles read on the site the. I started sharing the blog on Google recently in February, and SEO is not optimized at all. But, I wanted to take advantage of this text to thank you for reading what I share.

People often ask me for news, or to tell them about my trip. Except that there's so much going on every day, I can't tell every person everything. I make an effort with those who contact me. But there's a very strange emotion I'm discovering, which is this:

People want their version of the trip, to be told by you, as if I'm going to talk nonsense. Whereas I take much more time to share here. And if you're really interested in what I do, in me, and in my trip. I'd like to say, start with my blog and come and ask me some questions.

When I redirect to my blog, I'm met with a sort of reluctance or "I'll do that later". And in the end, the person never reads, but I'll be criticized for not writing.

When you leave Europe at 19, you meet a lot of people. And at the beginning, I was trying to keep in touch with everyone, but I was running out of steam, and it was taking so much effort. Oh yeah, because you're the one who's leaving, so you're the one who has to make the effort to keep in touch. You ingrate!

At first, of course, I did, and then one day I made the decision to stop forcing it, to keep in touch with everyone. Inevitably, I come across as someone who doesn't make any effort or whatever.

Except that my mind can't cope with so many people, so I was forced to make the simplest choice in the extreme, which was simply to stop writing and giving news, and wait for life to bring us back together.

I'm all for living in the moment. Except I realized that by not informing anyone, I was missing out on opportunities and people.

And since the start of this trip, I've been experimenting with sharing with this blog, an open Instagram account for photos, and my Facebook which is connected to my Insta and shares everything automatically.

And for the first time back in a city where I've been, I put up a story of where I've been, and the response has been incredible. I've had lots of messages asking to meet up, and plans for cafés and so on.

I have to admit that with the way I used to do things, I sometimes felt that I was missing things, or that people didn't like me anymore.

I think I've found peace with this system, where I share with everyone, and especially if we're ever in the same place OR you feel like coming to see me, you pretty much know where I am in the world.

Inevitably, after so much time traveling, people's first question, after the customary "ça va", is: "where are you living now?".

And the conclusion is that life will take you wherever you want to go, from experience to experience, providing you with the tools to keep in touch with people from your past and the freedom to live your experiences without having to answer to anyone.

And that I'd rather take the time to write about my experience once, with lots of details, even if it means boring you, than tell you about the surface of the Iceberg 1,000 times over.

Thanks to Charlotte who inspired me to write this blog, telling me about the difficulties of keeping in touch with her friends in France.