Originally Posted by
malioil
I usually post in the BA forum, but as this is a general topic I thought I'd put it here.
I have always loved travelling and being on the road, coming from a small country with a native population of only 400,000, there was a limited amount of things I used to appreciate about home.
For the last few years I have had to spend months away from home at a time, doing productive work, but right now the melancholy is really getting to me. It's been 2 months since I last spent a week at home, and my next break is a month away.
I'm just sick of being in foreign places and not being able to return to my bed, my living room, speak my native tongue or mix with my fellow people, with whom I feel most comfortable.
Most of all I miss my parents, and cannot help but feel that I am missing precious time with them which I may later regret.
I only have to do this for another year, but as I work through the night I thought I'd share my feelings with you for I am sure most of you have felt similarly at one point during your time on the road. How do you cope with it and what advise may you have?
I spent most of my career working the way you describe. Months at a time away from home.
The way you handle it by making sure that the time at home is real quality time. One of my friends told me that when he was home he would walk his 2nd and 3rd graders to school in the morning. How many fathers get to do that? Another guy with grown kids would save up all his FF miles and fly his wife first class to Paris a couple of times a year, meet her there and have a romantic week together.
Having said that, another buddy came to me in my office in Africa one day and said that his youngest daughter was just starting school and that he realized he had missed half her life. He went back to the US, changed jobs and has never been happier.
Like anything else, it is what you make of it.