How travel prepared me for COVID-19 Life

During the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, much focus was placed on travel restrictions. As soon as the virus spread, hotels and resorts closed, people feared being on a plane for hours with other people and governments restricted entries into their countries.

I appreciated that I had taken a couple memorable trips right before the world changed. It was a lesson that you should not wait for a “better time” or “sometime in the future” to take a trip you want to experience. It’s not just a worldwide pandemic that can cause dreams to be put on hold. I’ve discovered this to also be true of other unpredictable events that destroy plans. For example, soon after I took one of the trips of a lifetime in the Great Barrier Reef, a cyclone destroyed the island and resort that we stayed at (which was a place on my bucket list).

Because of experiencing a good amount of travel before the pandemic, I got a bit of my travel itch out and was okay with not traveling for a little while. But my thoughts around travel never paused. In fact, the experience has made me think about how a lifetime of travel has better prepared me for the way COVID-19 impacted daily life. It is ironic that getting out and around the world made it easier to be isolated and stagnant.

1. Being flexible to adjust to new rules and ways of doing things

When you go to a new country, you learn to adjust to new customs, laws and routines. You might be required to walk or drive on the other side of the street. Your server might leave you alone for hours instead of checking in on you. Shops might be closed for certain periods when you find it best to shop. As an American traveling in Russia, I never quite adjusted to the ability of the police to randomly stop you and demand your passport and other documentation.

COVID-19 has required some new ways of living, whether it be wearing a mask, keeping six feet apart from others or learning new ways to work from home. Thinking of the adjustments like new customs while living in a new country has made accepting and adopting new routines much easier. Knowing that I’m simply respecting “COVID-land’s” people and customs is a healthy mental shift for how to interact with people during the pandemic.

2. Adjusting to not having all the products you are used to when you want them

If you have ever needed a product at a drug store, forgot to pack some clothing essential, or craved a familiar food when traveling, you learned to accept that the brand you are used to isn’t available, but the one you find works just fine. If this happened in a foreign country, it may have added complexity to try and communicate or even figure out how to located what you needed. In South Africa for months without a washing machine, I adjusted to taking my underwear to the Laundromat.

During the pandemic, things like toilet paper were initially hard to find. Certainly, your favorite brand might not have been available. Plus, stores were out of different products and there were delays in getting things back in. Even two-day shipping that people were used to was longer.

Having dealt with complexity, inconvenience and adjustment in stressful travel situations made adjusting to shopping during COVID-19 much easier. I somewhat likened it to the two times I’ve lived overseas and had to figure out new shopping patterns. It was simple to just consider the time period like an extended trip.

3. Being okay with experiencing holidays a bit different than usual

With holidays come additional days off work. If you are maximizing your travel opportunities, you use these extra days to your advantage. I’ve leveraged month-long trips in November to make use of those free days when Veteran’s Day and Thanksgiving line up right. As a result, I’ve celebrated just about every holiday at some time or another in a different country. It means that you find creative ways to recognize the day. Sometimes even making light in a emotional situation.

One of the things that I observed during the pandemic was how people reached their breaking point with social isolation when it came to holiday time. Americans disregarded guidelines as soon as Memorial Day came around and they wanted to party. Some people couldn’t imagine a Fourth of July without their traditional parade and fireworks.

Experiencing holidays in different ways makes you more flexible to those adjustments. You don’t put all your happiness into a specific mold and instead appreciate who you are with more than where you are at. You recognize what you can do is more important than what you can’t do.

4. Realizing that life is unpredictable

Travel rarely goes as planned if you are going on a complicated trip, especially in an underdeveloped country. It might be unexpected delays for planes or even something closed when you were planning on doing it a certain day. If you are lucky, you will have the resources, time or patience to manage the change. I once heard a US president say that it’s really difficult for people to understand the struggles in Africa because Americans are used to the fact that if you generally play by the rules, things will generally work out. If you work hard and go to school in America, many people can count on the ability to get a good job. In Africa, that really isn’t true to most situations. And that true of traveling in Africa too.

Especially in America, people often are used to things being as they expect. You go to McDonalds and you can be pretty sure that the hamburger will taste the same as it has your entire life. Americans are used to being able to keep life relatively consistent even despite major disruptions. The news cycle changes and people go back to their daily lives. While many people were willing to have a short disruption in their daily routines, they got fairly anxious and upset when it caused major, long-term changes.

It’s not uncommon to have a trip impacted by weather, disease outbreaks, or political unrest. Sometimes these events don’t allow you to go on a trip. Experience with continuously managing expectations with travel prepares you for the fact that sometimes big investments (the cost of a trip) get impacted by things you can’t control.

5. People in most countries respond differently to things like natural disasters and health scares

One of my early experiences in Australia had an impact on me in realizing that so many people in other countries accept science and data and apply it to their daily lives instead of resisting change. At the time, most of my friends in the United States were more interested in getting a good suntan than the long-term impacts of skin cancer. Being in Australia and seeing how my new friends had a healthy respect for sun damage really opened my eyes. Many of the countries I’ve spent time in consider the collective good to a larger degree than the United States. In many Asian countries, wearing a mask when you are sick has widely been accepted and used for the benefits of others.

The pandemic revealed a lot about American culture and its deep roots in individualism. People really struggled even early on with adjusting to things that might be uncomfortable (masks) or difficult on a personal level for the long-term. Being influenced by these other responses to dangers with welcoming the facts and alternatives provided me a different perspective on accepting the use of masks, social distancing and other recommendations by medical professionals.