How do you record your experiences and preserve your travel memories? Is this an important thing to do? Or does it somehow lessen your current experience?
Here, we explore some distinct ways to look back on our travels and discuss the value of doing something now for your future self. And we also touch on how recording experiences can actually deepen them in the moment.
Because so much of our website deals with the concept of travel both prior to departure and in the moment of the experience. So now let’s ask: What about the after?
Check out the pod — Subscribe on Stitcher, iTunes, or Spotify!
What’s your relationship with nostalgia for travel memories?
Eli: I have to admit an emotional handicap… Before I started traveling, I was a very nostalgic person. I looked at periods in my life and had this strong nostalgic wish to go back or just longing. For nature, events, people — usually it’s a group of people. Now when I think about it, I was usually nostalgic for tribes. (The one I’ve been most nostalgic for is probably my tribe in the Army).
Sometimes, I was a little disappointed with how nostalgic I was. I was looking at the past too much, but I couldn’t avoid it. But the more I traveled, the less nostalgic I became. After six or seven years of travel, I stopped feeling nostalgia altogether.
Of course, I still look fondly on places in the past, but I’m much more emotionless towards them. It’s made my life easier in a way, it made it easier to constantly move places and leave tribes — like an emotional defense mechanism to cope with constant change. And something we don’t talk about enough is how constant change will actually alter your psychology. We adapt to it.
But what’s interesting is that this wasn’t my conscious decision — this is what worries me a little bit. With other attachments, I may have made a conscious decision to remove myself from the risks they posed. But here, this emotional detachment was not a decision I made. And honestly, I wish I still had a little bit of this attachment. I wish I still looked back fondly at how things used to be and went back to those moments. I wish I had a little bit of it back.
And I think that when you lose this nostalgia… Memories are not as important as they seem… The entire beauty is basically looking at your memories nd re-experiencing the feelings. And reexperiencing the loss, since you’re no longer there. But because I don’t have it, preserving memories is less of a priority for me.
What’s the benefit of nostalgia? Are you missing out if you don’t feel it?
Eli: Yeah I don’t really connect with feelings that are looking back on things. I’m always trying to push myself out of some kind of …victimized mindset. Like I had something and I lost it. When you look at nostalgia, you’re saying “look I’m no longer there” and I’ve tried to move away from that. But I do think there is some sweetness to it, so would like to get it back.
Have been thinking a bit about emotions and how important they are to us. I lost a bit of my connection with emotions with my past.
Dan: I’ve thought about this a lot, and I have a number of small little rituals — for while traveling or while not. But as for “why” — I don’t post on social media, so it’s not about creating a persona, but there’s a deep-seeded version of me will look back on these records fondly. I think there is a lot of nostalgia in my heart, but mostly in a proactive way.
Sometimes I’ll whip out a camera at a location and have one voice say “nice, I’ll have this record to look back on and show my future family” but then another voice will say “well, now you’re completely removing yourself from the experience and you’ve lost its authenticity.” And I struggle with this debate.
Eli: You’ve made me think of something. I don’t think I have as much of a need to communicate with my future version. And I think part of it may be that for you, this moving-around period is more temporal. Whereas I think I’m not planning for this. This is a lifestyle that’s continuing with no preset end-date. I don’t have a plan to end it; I don’t see it as a phase. But the story I’m telling myself is that I will keep on doing this as long as I can.
Although I will shamelessly plug BecomeNomad’s Instagram page! That’s one small way I track travel memories.
How do you feel about sharing experiences? Social media — convenient or superficial?
Eli: Well what is superficial? If you enjoy it, I don’t think it’s superficial. It really depends on each person. As far as I’m concerned, the topic of even discussing social media itself has become toxic.
So I don’t do it. But plenty of people do post their travels on social media. And if you do, great! That’s part of your way to connect with people in your circle. Keep on doing it.
If you’re living this lifestyle just to post and share and impress people, you have to ask yourself where this need is coming from. Maybe that’s a good indication that you’re not where you’re supposed to be. Maybe this means that the people you care most about and the people you want to spend time with aren’t where you presently are.
So I guess it comes back down to motives — ask yourself why you are doing this. It all depends on the purpose.
Dan: On the topic of motives — when I journal or take a picture, it’s almost like I’m accumulating a psychological trophy case. Not just to look back on nostalgically, but almost to look back on with pride one day.
For instance, when Google Photos pings me with a notification reminding me of some awesome travel experience, it gives me pride. Almost like an accomplishment, like “look at this awesome thing I did! Look at this worthwhile way of spending my time.” These travel memories will always be a part of my personal story, and I want to celebrate that story.
Eli: That’s great, and you’re uncovering a lot of my psychology as well. We talked before that one of the reasons I’m not documenting is that I’m not thinking of the future version of me who will enjoy it.
But at the same time, this constant traveling have kind of confused my concept of past and future self. You seem to have a relationship with them; I sometimes feel they don’t exist for me.
There is a saying that a person is like a river — they’re both in a constant state of change. So for me, I don’t have this psychological connection to these past and future versions of myself.
Viktor Frankl (sp), in his book A Man’s Search for Meaning, one thing he realized in the concentration camp was that it doesn’t matter how much power people have over you, they can never rob you of your past travel memories. They’re assets that you accumulate — safer than any bank account. So I definitely see the merit of it.
What have been your methods of recording travel memories?
Eli: I used to take photos, and I still take photos. Mostly of scenery, which I actually regret. I’ve told you before that I did an experiment in South America after a backpacking trip where I ended up with 1,000 photos. I forced myself to only keep 10 and get rid of the other 990. And what was shocking for me, back then at least, was that the ten I chose all had people in them.
The idea here is that I constantly chose people over nature. And that’s something that this discussion reminds me I have to do more: Capture that human connection.
I can’t help it though: When I go to a new place and unexpectedly encounter beauty, I feel I have to take a photo. This happens about four times a month — it has to be something that I really didn’t anticipate. And I honestly don’t look at my photos, but I like having them as reminders of where I’ve been.
Especially when you’ve been to as many places as I have, you might forget places. You might be in a situation where you forget you even visited a place — especially places you go on brief weekend trips.
So for me, it’s a way to remind myself. You’d be surprised, after twelve years of traveling, it can be hard to remember where I went on weekend trips in, say Venezuela. Those small places can be hard to remember.
Other than that, I do one other thing: Audio. It’s something I just started recently. What I do is walk in nature and audio record memories from past trips — even trips from ten years ago. So I come up with as many memories and impressions and thoughts as I can, but with the distance of time. Basically: What do I remember?
I get to tell fun stories and get to find out what I’m emotionally connected to. And it forces me to think about friends and activities that I may not have thought about in a long time.
For me, audio is a much better way to connect with the things I’m doing… This is probably why we have our podcast!
And I really do think everyone should have their very own style.
Dan: Yeah I actually use an app that lets you compile 1-second videos. The premise is that each day you cut a second or two from a short video each day, and then put it all together at the end of the year. And you get to look back on it to get a glimpse of where you were and what you were doing on a day-to-day basis. I have one for 2019 (that had a lot of traveling, lots of moving around) and 2020 (which naturally had less movement, but still has loads of sentimental value). And I’m still going strong.
What I really love about this project, though, is that it forces me to have a moment where I appreciate each day. No day goes by where I just blink and it’s over. Even if I’m just at a gas station or sitting at home, this project pushes me to appreciate my current adventure (even if that adventure is not much of an adventure).
Eli: I love it. I would never do it, it takes too much commitment, but it’s a beautiful project. I think everyone, at the end of the day, has to customize what they do. There is no right way, there is only how the masses do it. But I think everyone can find their own special way to document — one that connects with their psychology.
I would encourage, on this topic of travel memories, to think and experiment here. That’s something I’m gonna do myself. Because if you have burnout, which is a lack of connection with your emotions, a lot of it can be dealt with if you have some effective mechanism of documentation.
Like with journaling — it forces you to connect with the now. Because if something was really good before, and you feel warmly towards it, this means it’s currently not as good. This is like an internal alarm. So I think documentation should receive more attention, especially from myself.
Dan: Jumping off the one-second video idea, these strategies can be mechanisms for preserving nostalgia. Or preserving memory. But I feel like something that really drove me towards journaling was a desire for any experience — travel or otherwise — to contribute to my growth.
So it’s a way to see how my mindset is shifting at a certain point in time. Is there something from a certain experience that I can pinpoint as having an impact? It kind of makes the activity of growing as an individual something that’s more front and center in my mind.
Eli: Makes sense. And if it works for you, that’s great — no need for other validation. Like my audio thing: It works for me, probably wouldn’t for most others.
How does this discussion tie in to your personal growth process?
My goal is to grow from each location to each location. So my memory of each place is also a memory of how I changed in those places. How I became a better version of myself there. And I’m hoping that this is constantly happening.
I think that there is a trend line, where I’m becoming a little better, a little wiser. And those places are helping me to better understand who I am. Because how can you understand who you are? Really by being exposed to many different situations. And something we were saying is that the nomadic lifestyle puts you in uncertainty, outside of stability, and pushes you to learn about yourself.
So it’s not necessarily the location itself that uncovers these things. It’ll be more than anything your version of you in these locations. And that’s the electrifying mix here.
Sometimes there are locations that you liked the first time you visited, then didn’t like as much the next time, and vice versa. The reason is that you’re a different person visiting these places. For me, the idea is to see what my current version learn about itself and how did it progress to the next version by leveraging the characteristics of my surroundings.
And I do try to do this — I try to leverage my environment. For instance; Even just surfing in Las Palmas — this isn’t an activity I necessarily would have done before. Previous Eli might have been more closed-minded about it. So the idea is not just to do the actual activity, but to make sure it creates some kind of pattern for the future. Like if you go from Las Palmas to Medellin, maybe in Medellin youll be more willing to try dancing Salsa, and so on.
It’s really about growing as a person from each location to the next. Especially with this nomadic lifestyle, nothing inspires growth more than change. And that’s the beauty of documentation — understanding at which point this growth happens. You remind yourself of how good you were in some locations. I still have memories of my time in Budapest, where I had an alarm clock at night after which I would close all my screens no matter what. And I love this period! I left this habit after a few months, but I want it back. Just by remembering it, I know it can be done.
In a way… documentation allows you to hold yourself to higher standards.
Dan: Yeah say you’re even going through some hardship or in a bad mood, seeing a past journal entry where I’m feeling more free or more positive about life has almost a therapeutic quality. It can help remind me, “hey, don’t forget about these other recent versions of yourself.”
Eli: One of my biggest recommendations while I’m traveling… It’s the BecomeNomad podcast! Why are we doing this podcast? Not only for the listeners and readers… More than anything, it’s my travel journal. And I don’t really share much about my person life in different locations, but I do speak about things that I learned and that I’m learning on the road — usually not directly connected to the locations, even.
So we have these life timestamps, in a way. And the sharing with an audience — the real point is having something for future reference. In one year or two year, say, when I’m thinking again about documentation, I’ll come back to this episode. That way, I can remember what past Eli had to say about this subject.
Plus, having an audience forces accountability and provides validation. They show you that there is value in what you’re coming up with and the experiences you have. So a big thanks to you for being this form of accountability for me!
What about you — how do document your travel experiences? Do you have any special mechanisms for preserving travel memories for your future self? Please share below — we’ll reply to your message asap!
