Leaving home - Leaving Leeds to travel

Some people go on holidays, some go for round-trips around the world, and some buy one-way tickets to distant places. The latter has happened to us… twice.

We both left our homes in Lithuania, hoping to come back soon after the graduation. Yet five years down the line we were still in the UK. We realised that this was our home now – a chic fifth-floor apartment with a huge window and a riverside view. Well-paid office jobs, enough time to travel somewhere close enough and keep ourselves entertained – we couldn’t have asked for more. However, deep inside, it just didn’t feel like home.

A couple more years passed, and the thought of filling the “utmost exciting” job positions back home was out the window. This time, we had one-way tickets to Thailand.

A total of 9 boxes packed with carefully thought-through items were shipped to the “original home” in Lithuania – the point of departure where we left seven years ago. The flat was getting empty. We exchanged goodbyes with our colleagues and friends, yet we still couldn’t believe we were leaving.

It was only when we had a few hours left before our train to the airport, that it suddenly hit us – the sense of leaving home. Looking at our suitcases and spending our final moments in the flat, hundreds of little memories started coming back: testing our patience when the gate won’t accept the code twenty times in a row, trying to put the blinds up slowly as to not catch the Christmas lights sellotaped to the window; sticking out my head through the window in the morning to see how windy it is; picking up and eating rocket-salad leaves after having dropped them on the carpet during dinner (daily occurrence); trying to manage the fridge contents after a party while keeping record-low food waste levels…

And after all those years we had to put our home key in an envelope, slip it under the door, and walk away. We were walking towards the train station knowing we will not be coming home the same way tomorrow, knowing we wouldn’t really have a home for some time.

But as soon as the train started moving, that feeling of being on a journey, that feeling of an adventure came up, and suddenly we both felt happy again. We were beginning our next adventure…