New Year's Resolution ~ Dealing with returning home

It's funny, when I left for the UK I had read about post-vacation depression but I blew it off as one of those "not going to happen to me" things. Wrong!

Every traveller has a different name for the fallout of a great trip, so let me explain what it is.

Basically, post-vacation depression occurs when you go to a different city, country, or continent and experience a way of life that is completely different from your own. You see new sights, taste new foods and meet new people, essentially you experience this great little thing called culture.

And then you come back home.

The people are the same as you left, the city is the same, you go back to eating the same things you always did and hanging out at the same old haunts.

Home is nice, but you didn't realize how bright and sparkly the world could be until you were seeing something new for the first time in years.

I'll give you an example.

Remember when you got your driver's licence? Think about that first month. You were free! It was like being four years old again, when you got to see everything for the first time, and under your own power no less! Suddenly, riding in the back seat of your parent's car wasn't good enough anymore, you wanted to drive and anything less was a letdown.

Toronto, and my life here, suddenly feel like riding in the back seat.

I've barely travelled, eighteen days is not a long time to be out of Canada, but since I've gotten home everything just seems a little bit bland. Part of this is my own frustration that I came back to find it too cold and snowy to spend endless days wandering the city discovering new things, and laziness in pursuing adventures beyond my experience in Toronto.

This becomes a problem when I intend to continue travelling, I can't mope every time I come home, because that defeats this whole extraordinary life that I'm trying to live.

My solution to this situation basically is this:

I need to find awe and wonder in Toronto. I used to love this city. It used to make me feel alive, and I need to recapture that. I want to get lost in the city, to find something that I've never seen, to explore and be scared and try something new.

So, that's the goal. No weight loss resolutions here, I'm going to re-discover the city in which I live. I'm going to explore, adventure and enjoy Toronto between the many trips I intend to take in the next year.

If you want to join me, let me know.