You don’t think you can pack your stuff to sleep/eat/get dressed/entertain yourself in a backpack? Well, think again…I have left for 10 days in Norway with a 50 liters backpack, challenging myself to fly using it as a hand luggage (55 cm height and 10kg weight) and not only I did it, but I was also able to pack some stuff I ended up not using at all during the holiday! So what you need to survive, more, to live well, is really little.
Once you realize this, you are ready to take the adventure of a backpacking holiday. It will challenge your comfort zone in a way you cannot imagine, but it will teach you more than you think.
You ask what, for example?
- The importance of a gram. Packing all you need for several days knowing you will have to bring it on your shoulders all the time is not an easy task. You become very aware of every kilo, more, of every single gram. Especially if you travel to a cold country, like we did in Norway, you will need to pack winter clothes which take a lot of space and especially of weight. The line between the risk of not packing something important, thus being cold or unprepared, and having a backpack that is too heavy to lift and bring with you all the time, is a very narrow one…trying to figure out what works for you is a challenge that will give you an idea of your abilities and capacities.
- What is really important in life. When you pack for a normal holiday, you tend to fill your suitcase with a lot of useless stuff – especially clothes. You bring with you a lot of things you don’t need and you probably won’t even use, exactly as it happens in life: you collect more and more objects, fill in your wardrobe with clothes, get crazy to buy something new, but like a backpack life tends to become too heavy when you fill it with unimportant stuff. Then it becomes difficult to leave things behind, and we get stuck. A backpack forces you to see clearly what is essential to your survival, without which you can’t really live; then what may be useful, and you will try to fill it in. Then, and only then, what is accessory: these things will only come with you if there is space, OR if you are able to make space for them somehow. For example, I didn’t think I would make it to bring with me my DSLR camera, which I totally love but is so big and heavy. When I was packing, I realized I really wanted to have it with me. I had to make a choice between that and other accessory things, and I did it. This is not a common thing to learn.
- You realize what comfort is, and what you are capable of when you don’t have it. Sleeping in a tent, possibly wild camping somewhere else than a camping, tests your comfort zone to levels you couldn’t imagine. There is no toilet, no running water, no space where to fit your stuff, no shelter if it rains…all the commodities of modern life are simply gone. It’s you and the nature, and feelings like frustration, panic, discomfort are frequent. And this is the fact: when you are forced to go back to some basic instincts like these, you find yourself discovering the beauty in small things like a sunny day, a warm sleeping bag, a soft soil where to pitch the tent, and so on. Life becomes suddenly an adventure, where even going to the toilet can become a story to tell your grandchildren one day!
- You learn that rain means troubles, and you start to be grateful for every single ray of light. Literally. Going to Norway, one of the most rainy countries in Europe, was a strong lesson for that. Every day we had some rain – some days it was manageable, some others it was a flooding. When you are backpacking and rain hits you, it’s more than an inconvenience – it’s a crisis. You have to think quick and sharp, act fast, decide what to do and just do it. This is a new challenge you would not imagine…but when the sun comes shining back on your wet clothes and tent, the feeling of happiness and gratefulness is unimaginable. No present has ever been so pleased.
- You understand that “a man should own only what he can bring on his shoulders when running”, as Chris McCandless thought. Your backpack becomes your worst nightmare and your best friend, you hate it at the beginning for being a constant weight on your shoulders and for the way it hides all the things you need like they were never there. But at the same time it’s comforting to know that everything you need is in there! You learn how to pack it quickly and with the right order, and your mind starts to work in a different way, thinking about your stuff in relation to your backpack and nothing else. And when you finally are able to fill it in in a perfect order, finding out you have more free space than when you left, you feel just like a boss.
- You learn that the best persons are on the road. When you are backpacking, you go through a lot of challenges and difficulties, this is now clear. And the lesson that will change you most can be learnt exactly from this – when you are in troubles, there will always be someone. Will it be another backpacker, or a pitiful driver that stops to carry you somewhere, or a nice vendor that gives you something for free, or simply a random guy in the street, you will soon find out the amazing rule of the road: people show the best on themselves in these moments. You learn that the moment you open up yourself to the world, then the world comes back to you smiling. At home, we are usually so concentrated on ourselves and on our problems that we tend to feel like we are alone. Get out of your comfort zone, challenge yourself and have the courage to get in troubles, and life will show you the best it has to offer. And if no nice stranger comes to help you, you will discover an even more important lesson: when the moment comes and you feel like you can’t do it alone, you will find out how strong you are, and that in the end you will always be more than enough to yourself. This is the true lesson a backpacking holiday will teach you.
Are you ready to try, then? You won’t regret it ;)
Any other life lesson you have learnt on the road during a backpacking holiday? Share it in the comments!
Happy travels,
GWaS