Back in June, I announced that I would be going on six-month travel adventure. A couple weeks ago, I had to cut that adventure short, after only four months abroad. Here’s why.

Reason #1: Exhaustion

Traveling wiped me out! After five weeks of moving from place-to-place in Norway, a week in Las Vegas for a conference, two days of driving to the Grand Canyon and then to central California, and a long stay in Colorado, I was quite done with traveling.

It had come to the point where I wasn’t even looking forward to my last stop, in Medellín, Colombia. And that was a problem, because I expected Colombia to be the most taxing of all my trips, due to the starker culture shock and language barriers I’d experience there.

I did not want to go to Colombia when I was already burnt out.

I realized I needed to go back home and rest. I needed a break, and some stability for a while.

I still would like to go to Colombia! Hopefully, one day I’ll get to finish this adventure. And hopefully, it’ll be someday soon.

Reason #2: I ran out of money

Well… there’s that.

Even if I wanted to continue this trip, I couldn’t. My plans for freelancing and working for myself were unsuccessful. I didn’t have enough money to last me the entire six months; I was counting on getting work abroad.

I did get some work, but it wasn’t nearly enough. I decided to come home and get a “real job” again, at least so I could save up and try this again. Only next time, I’d be wiser about it.

In retrospect, I feel like my decision to jump out of my job like I did was rather foolish. I should have had a much clearer, more dependable income stream lined up.

But hey! At the time, it seemed like a good idea. I knew I was taking a risk; I knew this could happen, but I believed it’d be worth it.

And I stand by that. It was worth it. Sometimes, you just have to go out there and try things. You’ll fail, but you’ll learn from the experience too, and next time, you’ll have a better idea of how to do it right.

Image credits: That picture is of me, on a mountain in Norway, taken by me!