a·way·sick | əˈwāˌsik |

adjective

experiencing a longing for travel during a period of absence from it: he was awaysick for Southeast Asia after a year of COVID-19.

It hit me this past Wednesday.

I guess there are two things you need to know. First is that the weather in Shenzhen is pretty good all year. It gets a little chilly in the winter, but never that cold. I can often get by with just a sweater and only need to wear a light jacket for the very coldest couple of weeks of the year. Even though it never gets really cold it’s always nice when it gets warm enough to wear shorts again.

The second is that I am fortunate enough that my job affords me the opportunity to travel fairly often. I’d gotten into the habit of taking one trip during the Chinese New Year holiday in January/February and two trips during the summer holiday.

Knowing that we can continue. Like pretty much everyone else I haven’t been doing too much traveling this past year because…well…you know. While China wasn’t locked down too long compared to some other countries we still can’t really travel too much. If I leave the country I probably can’t get back in and even traveling locally risks having to do a 2-week quarantine (even if it’s unlikely).

Now people that don’t travel too much may not have noticed that aspect of COVID but I live vacation to vacation because it means I can see all sorts of new things. And not having been anywhere in over a year really hit me last Wednesday. No since I live in southern China most of my trips are to Southeast Asia, because it’s close, it’s affordable, and there’s plenty to see. Now Southeast Asia is pretty close to the equator so when I’ve been it’s often sunny, hot, and humid. I have lots of great memories of waking up and meandering down the street looking for somewhere to have breakfast or coffee, already starting to sweat in the heat and humidity. Last Wednesday was the first day it broke ~80°F/30°C and as I was walking to school the morning humidity was pretty rough. Earlier in the week I had started posting pictures from my Cambodia trip to Instagram so all those mornings exploring ruins were fresh in my mind. And halfway to work I just got really sad. I was awaysick.

I realize I’ve been exceptionally fortunate through this whole ordeal but even for me and others who have been fortunate it’s tough to look back on the past year and wonder what places and experiences we’ve missed out on. I think a lot of people are awaysick right now.

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