In Transit
Part 01: Everywhere and Nowhere
“So where do you live now?”
Asked Harrison, as we stood in a beer garden I don’t recognize, at our ten-year high school reunion. I have to stop and think for a second as I scramble for an answer that doesn't sound completely insane.
“Well, I’m kind of… everywhere?” I laugh, taking a sip of my drink to buy time. “I’m traveling full-time now.”
Before I can fumble through my usual explanation about storage units and home bases, my best friend Cristian swoops in like the hype man he’s always been. “She’s traveling the world!” he announces (with the kind of pride usually reserved for announcing pregnancies or promotions). “She works in venture capitalism and just lives wherever she wants, whenever she wants.”
I brush it off with a shrug. “Well, sort of — I work on the events team at a global impact organization in the venture capitalism world.” I try to clarify, though explaining the nuances of my job feels less important than the fact that someone else can describe my life better than I can.
“That’s amazing,” Harrison says. “I’m still up here, working at Starbucks as a shift manager.”
There’s something warm in his tone, and I smile. I used to work at Starbucks too, but I can’t help noticing the contrast between our lives now. He has routine, and I have… a storage unit in San Diego?
How do you rationalise to someone that your “home base” of a storage unit exists purely because you visited San Diego amidst your travels to see your brother, and while visiting ended up rekindling an old flame who happened to live there? That you stayed longer than expected and got a storage unit so you had an excuse to come back. And now, even though that relationship has since ended, San Diego somehow stuck as your “base” simply because that’s where your winter clothes are stored? It’s all too much context for a casual reunion conversation.
So I just say, “San Diego’s my base,” and leave it at that.
As the night goes on and I watch my former classmates discuss mortgages and marriages, that old question starts circling again — the one that’s been quietly following me for the past two years, growing heavier with every new country and time zone: Am I running toward something, or just really good at running away?
Later, watching Cristian explain my life to a group of curious classmates, I realise something’s shifted. The girl who left LA needed a plan. The woman at this reunion? She’s okay not having one.
I’ve been around the world more than once since I started this journey, and I still don’t have a clean elevator pitch. I stumble when people ask where I live. I’m not sure if this life I’ve built is still part of the story, or just what I needed to break away from the last one. But I do know this: growth doesn’t always come from having a plan. Sometimes it comes from saying yes before you know where it leads.
High school me would ask: What’s the plan? What happens next? And I’d say: maybe it’s not about having the answer. Maybe it’s about learning to live in the question. There are stories worth telling in the space between where you started and where you think you're headed — stories about the people you meet, the things you leave behind, and the version of yourself that takes shape when no one knows who you used to be.
So that’s what this is: an exploration of that space.
I’m Gigi, and this is Part One of In Transit — a monthly blog series in collaboration with WOM, unpacking the lessons I've learned as a digital nomad navigating my twenties.
I’m not here to sell you the Instagram version of travel or convince you to quit your job and buy a one-way ticket (though if that’s your thing, more power to you!). This is about the messier, more honest side of life on the move. The unexpected growth, cultural shifts, and questions that don’t always come with answers.
Each month, we’ll dive into a new theme: from identity and belonging to uncertainty, comparison, and what “home” even means when your address keeps changing.
So if you’ve ever questioned what comes next, or found comfort in not knowing, stick around because this one’s for you.
See you next month for Part Two.
Gigi
