I am on year 3 of what was originally a 6 month trip. 6 months, I find is when most people decide to go home, but it is also the crucial wall that allowed my travel personality to take over.

There was no magic pill for me. My first 6 months was miserable, it was an adventure, sight seeing and meeting fellow travelers awt hostels was still something I wanted to do. I ended up very lonely at the end of 6 months and didn't make any friends.

After that is when I mentally stopped thinking about traveling and seeing the world. I just exist and tried as hard as possible to listen to that voice inside. I went for crazy experiences that I only hear in passing. That hermit in a jungle that someone talked about in passing? I went and visited him. The cult with promise of salvation? Yeah that too.

Then I got too many friends. The experience didn't just transform what existed in me. I am literally a different person. But I had to leg go of the notion that I am just traveling and that I am going back later.