As some of you might know, part of my thinking about moving abroad was to figure out whether becoming a bit of a digital nomad was a possibility, but that pursuit has been stalled by some frustrations.
I guess I should start by saying that I’m glad I was able to make this move and that I’m grateful to have a viable job for the foreseeable future. But I hadn’t planned on staying in a geographically static job indefinitely. I needed to be practical (i.e. get an income) and taking this teaching post was the best option for now. But I’m still focused on finding (a) job(s) that allows be to be somewhat more nomadic (more so than in the past).
My assumption until recently was that my frustrations were borne of a generational divide between me and the age of the average digital nomad. Since I was born in the last few months of the 70s (and the fact that South Africa was at least a few years behind the more development global north), I’m definitely more of a GenX’er than a millennial although being born on the cusp of (what is argued to be the transition between those) two generations, I know I have something in common with the latter group too.
That said, it seemed (to me, at least) as though many digital nomads were influencer wannabes, touting their fashion sense, as well as countless selfies at and/or advice about different destinations. I have no interest in being in front of the camera (whether photographic or videographic). I’m more interested in staying behind the scenes and doing something that doesn’t involve performing for the camera. Let me write, let me analyse some data, or let me… I guess this is what I’m trying to figure out.
That said, I recently became aware of an article that suggests “the over-35 crowd makes up a significant portion of the digital nomad community”. In fact, the author cites a Forbes article when stating that “most digital nomads are over 38”. This suggests that, at least from an age perspective, digital nomads are mostly my generation. Additionally, the Forbes article says that while many are in creative and/or IT-related jobs, “some are remote workers with traditional jobs”.
While I haven’t discussed it at length, books like ‘Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel’ and ‘The 4-Hour Workweek’ have also been helpful in shaping my thinking about the way forward (and those guys are older than me). So, I guess I need to work on rethinking some faulty assumptions I had about what this digital nomad life could be, and simply persevere when it comes to finding some viable remote work.
After all, I read a comment on a Reddit post yesterday where someone said it took them 6 months and 500+ job applications before they landed a viable remote job that allowed to travel freely.
I guess I’ll just #KeepOnKeepingOn and stay grateful for the job I have at the moment.
PS: I’m moving away from the bird site, so please connect with me on Instagram and/or Mastodon.
About the Author
One thought on “Expat frustrations: en route to becoming a digital nomad”
Comments are closed.
Good work JP. Keep on keeping on going.