20 Struggles Only Digital Nomads Will Understand

#thestruggleisreal for those of us who travel around the world with a backpack and proudly hold the title Remote Worker. It happens to the best of us.

1. You are always uncertain about something. Uncertainty is your natural state. Along with the inability to make choices.

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I don’t know where I will be next week. I don’t know if I will afford this tomorrow. Should I pack warm clothes? Should I go next to Bali or Spain? So many choices…

2. If you got a penny each time someone asked you to explain why are you wasting your life nomading, you would have been a millionaire. Half an year ago!

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3. Your pre-work routine includes applying sunscreen.

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4. Your back hurts so much all the time, you can’t remember how it was when it didn’t hurt.

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All that bed work and backpack walking take their toll on you.

5. Sometimes you have to spend your entire day at the pool… because it’s laundry day!

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The only (almost) clean item you have is your swimsuit.

6. Speaking of laundry, you never have control over your laundry, as most of the times your host/motel staff deal with it.

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7. When you look at your photos you almost cry because you wear the same clothes in all of them.

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And this goes on since you left home, which was two months ago. Wait! Two months or two…years?

8. You are a master of long distance relationships.

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9. On the other hand, you can’t remember when you had sex with someone last time.

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Not including all the foreigners you’ve hooked up with in desperation for some no strings attached sexy time.

10. You’re always terrified when you reach the custom officers because they will open your backpack, dig into your lifetime belongings, pick up your sex toys and ask out loud if you always travel with them.

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There is nothing more embarrassing! Nothing!

11. You miss having your own space, which you can decorate at will.

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12. Each time you see something nice and want to buy it, you have to resist the urge because you know it will add to the weight of your already monumental backpack.

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13. After having couple of local meals, you start fantasizing of food back home.

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At home everything tastes better: beer, cheese and pasta, soups, even plain bread!

14. Your family and friends are always blaming you for missing their important events, such as weddings, birthdays or funerals.

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Meanwhile, you are celebrating the wedding of a foreigner you’ve just met during daily snorkeling sessions somewhere in South Asia.

15. When you finally return home you feel and look like a complete stranger.

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Who are these people? Why are they acting so weird?

16. You have a vast collection of adapters and chargers. And it keeps growing!

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Which are heavy AF! Plus, always tangled!

17. You are an expert at calculations, thanks to time zones.

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Always have to add or subtract hours before making a call!

18. The pain of filling out forms which ask for an address.

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I’m homeless! I’m a digital nomad! I don’t have an address, Mr. Bank!

19. When you call one of your friends back home they ask the same question: “When is your travel year ending?”

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20. You go to the market only to discover it is closed because there is a national holiday.

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