Keagan’s World

I can officially count my remaining days in my temporary home on one hand.

Scratch that. It’s over.

Just like that.

In fact it’s been over for more than a month.

If you haven’t been able to tell, I’m a bit behind on this blog thing. That first statement was true when I started writing this, but you know how things are… woke up and found I had time traveled two months in the future and teleported two countries away. Casual life things.

It feels like just yesterday that I arrived to my first host family’s home like a deer in the headlights. But like really, who even was that? Overpacked, over-planned, over-stressed.

Clueless.

Midwest farm-town boy, clueless college grad meets big foreign city. The joke writes itself. Just ask my friends who met me on day one and couldn’t help but laugh every time I opened my mouth to say a word in Spanish (or maybe that was just Margo *checks notes* yep like 80% Margo, 20% Andrea, Laura, and Eva – classic 80/20).

But even that has changed.

I met up with some friends my last couple weeks in Buenos Aires whom I hadn’t seen since my first couple of weeks and they were quite surprised. I could genuinely have a conversation with them in Spanish whereas before, there wasn’t a chance of getting through even a single exchange. But even more excitingly, they were surprised by my accent.

I’d be lying if I told you my ego didn’t go straight to the moon when I heard that. I’ve been trying to lose the heavy-ass United States accent that I came with since day one. To get validation from a native Spanish-speaker that it wasn’t so prominent was about the greatest parting gift I could get from Buenos Aires. And since then, my ego has only been pumped even further as more people have noted their surprise at my lack of accent.

Hell yeah.

It’s more than language though. It’s my perspective too.

Now don’t hear what I’m not saying: I don’t think I’m some holier-than-thou, too-mature for my age prick. It’s a lot more just to do with what I value and how I process things.

1. Once something shitty happens, just learn from it and move on

A lot is actually just trivial in the macro – paying way too much for Argentina accommodation, overpaying for patagonia, getting robbed in Santiago.

It’s okay to be upset because pain is relative to what you’re used to, but don’t let it ruin your next experience. Experience it, process it, move to the next thing.

2. People carry some crazy baggage you may not see on the surface

That includes your friends.

I’d be spending weeks having the greatest of times and sharing the best of memories with people as if life is perfect until you break through to that next layer. Life stories with struggle I couldn’t even imagine: living alone at like 18 in big cities with no money, fleeing home countries due to internal chaos, living paycheck to paycheck skipping meals because you don’t want to go broke.

Or even fleeting conversations with random people.

The number of taxi drivers I’ve met quitting jobs as doctors and lawyers to become Uber drivers because it somehow pays better blows my mind. So many of us have it so good and cushy in our home country even if our personal life circumstances aren’t perfect, but we don’t even realize it. We live in stable communities, with stable relationships, and stable environments. We don’t realize the luxury it is because it’s all we’ve ever known.

3. Having dedicated personal space and alone time is vital

This one is probably going to come as a shock to many of you. You? Keagan? Alone time? Are you sure you’re feeling okay?

Yes yes yes okay I know – I am what many of you would classify as an extreme extrovert and that’s probably a fair assessment. However… after a month on the road in exclusively shared bunks, I have realized my social battery does in fact run out. There’s days I want to write, blast my music while cooking a nice breakfast, or take an outloud facetime call. More than anything I just want to spread my stuff out rather than keep it crumpled up in a backpack, fishing for the first article of clothing my hands find for the day.

But I can’t.

Every space I have is public. If I want to spread my stuff out, I’m spending triple the money, losing the precious time I have to see the world, or missing out on making new friends. It’s a hard balance to strike and uphold. I don’t imagine I’ll stop with the hostel lifestyle, but I know damn well when I get home the first thing I am doing is dumping my backpack in the middle of my room and throwing my things everywhere. Why? Just cause I freaking can.

4. There are amazing people everywhere, you just have to make an effort

This is a last second addition I was thinking about last night. It’s actually wild. I’ve written a little on the topic before, but more so on the pace at which great friends are made. This is more about never feeling lonely.

The essence of traveling solo is never actually traveling solo. You make friends: some stick, some don’t, and some become travel buddies for awhile. When you meet someone new here, it’s an 90% chance they are following one of two general classic backpacking routes – south or north. So when you find people you just click with and they’re headed in the same general direction as you, it’s so easy to align your plans to hit a couple places at the same time and have a friendly face at your side.

But it’s almost never permanent.

After a week or two, you have different things you want to do so you head your separate ways. And every time it happens you think there’s no chance you’re going to find some people who can live up to the last. But then the next day you have 3 new friends and a plan to do some crazy shit for the next week.

Like clockwork.

And it’s because there are beautiful people everywhere. Sure you’re not going to just click with everyone, but if you’re putting yourself out there, you’re going to find people every time.

Seek people out. They’re awesome.

That’s the reason why I have been MIA on here for *checks watch* about two months.

Now the other side of that coin is I made a poor repacking decision when I sent my checked bag home and decided my big block MacBook charger wasn’t worth the space when I had another cord that was more versatile and worked just fine. Well that broke 30 minutes after I entered the Buenos Aires airport.

Oops.

Ended up getting a handout from a girl in Puerto Natales who had found an extra charger a week prior which was as lucky as one can get. The only issue is it’s slooooooooooooow. Couple that with my burnt out MacBook battery that can’t hold a charge and I have to decide when I’m going to do some blogging 5 hours in advance and start the charging process. You’d think that wouldn’t be a big deal but insert making friends and without fail, every time I decide I’m ready for blogging I end up shooting the crap with some people in the common area of my hostel and next thing you know I’m coming back from the bar, it’s time to catch a bus, or something else.

The worst part? I have like 3-4 posts written up in my notes app from these 12+ hour bus rides between destinations.

Anyways, I’ve been workshopping this one for nearly two freaking months now so I’ll leave it there. Nice to see y’all again 🙂