Illinois

Beautiful emerald green waters, peaceful white sand beaches, dangerous mountains, and raging waterfalls….are all amazing scenery that you won’t get a glimpse of around my hometown in DeKalb, IL.  I have been traveling for four years now and this is my first time spending more than 3 days back at home!  I think mainly the reason for this is because I always thought of coming home as a kind of defeat.

A lot of travelers that I talk to have some of the same worries about coming home.  We feel like if we come home that we will be stuck there; in our old, boring lifestyles that we are all so desperately running from.  We don’t want to be forced to work mundane jobs in boring places, with people who have never left their hometown for even a day of their life.  We have seen a different way of life and now we have that taste in our mouth.  Which makes it hard to come home even for a short spell, because you want to live a different life.

I’m just want to remind you not to wait too long to come back home for a visit.  People take it personally, and it’s hard for them to understand why you can’t be back every free day of the year.  Now that I’m home I realize that I’m not actually stuck here.  My family supports my travels and there is always “next season”.  But one of the most difficult parts about coming back to Illinois was trying to live my active outdoors lifestyle,  in a not-so-active city environment.  It is hard to do, but not impossible.  I have been taking hikes through all of the city parks and taking every side path I see.   People will also take their bikes through the parks too.  Another fun thing to do is to take a canoe, kayak, or just an inflatable raft down any river or creek by your town.  Just remember that you take what you learn on the road everywhere you go.

Home might be a lot different than the road, but you have to embrace that and remember “it’s a great place to visit!”