When the world is your home

I guess in our world as globalized as it is, there are a lot people that do not see only one city or country as their home anymore. They have a partner from abroad or even migrated themselves. Here the term: Home is where your heart is does not work that easily anymore. Yes, home is where your heart is, but this is no single place anymore. As for me, if home is where my heart is, home is in different places. Home is where my parents are in Germany, where my best friends live all over Europe, Cameroon,  Mexico and the rest of the world. So here is my point: home is for me the whole world, not every single place but there are sufficient different locations to make it easier to call it the world than name all the specific places.

We, as people, started with the digitalization and globalization to travel and move around the globe and visit all kinds of places. There a broad spectrum of ways to do so, there is tourism, exchange years, seasonal workers and so on. The difference is, what happens if you decide to life on the move, to stay in a country for years and then move on whilst leaving a part of your heart and home with the friends you made there? When looking at the diverse Jobs and Lifestyles that exist the one of river guides is a very mobile one. It is necessary to travel with the rain and the river seasons to work and also well, because you love to! This lifestyle submerges you into an international network of people that see the rivers of the world as their home. They are for me, the world people, that do have a house in a specific place but are on the move within the whole world to do what they love.

I got to know this river world while, of course travelling and it was something completely new for me. There are those easy going, crazy people that are so happy all the time taking tourists into wild water while rafting or kayaking and they just impress. And the impressive thing is, its not just how it seems, it is because they are happy. They chose to work in what they love all the time, and they enjoy every second. I saw, I liked and I joined. This is what happened. The adrenaline, the people, the nature, it boils down into this perfect melting pot that give you a warm feeling. So why not, leave the normal behind and just go for what makes you happy? This is how world becomes your home. Going for it, not only half way but all the way at least that is what it was for me.

So here I am, on the beginning of the journey of a lifetime which just begun with Mexico and is now going to continue all over the world. Of course I have a family and consider them my anchor and my home but I also consider the friends I got to know my home and my boyfriend. So home does now look different every time I think about it. Home can be Mexico, it can be my parents house, it can be a hotel room or even a place I do not even know yet can become home one day. That is the challenge of having the world as home. There is no one place you can stay at, there is always one part of your heart, well your home missing, no matter where you are. But the fun, adventures and ever growing family is worth that.

-Andrea