Building Community for the Long-Term: The Importance of Finding Friendships That Last

As a slow traveling couple, Mrs NN and I have had the privilege of exploring different parts of the world for the past 4.5 years. While we have had many amazing experiences and met many interesting people, one of the challenges we have faced is building a sense of community. In this article, I will be discussing the challenges of building a community as a slow traveling couple, and offering potential solutions to overcome these challenges.

Why Building a Community is Important?

Having a strong community is important for us and I as it provides a sense of stability and belonging. Traveling the world can be a lonely experience (even as a couple), especially when being in a new place every few weeks or months. A community can help to mitigate these feelings and can make our travels even more enjoyable by providing a sense of belonging and a shared experience.

Challenges to Building a Community

Here are some of the main challenges we’ve identified when trying to build a community.

Finding People Who Share Your Values

One of the biggest challenges we’ve faced when building a community is finding people who share our values. It can be difficult to connect with others when you’re living in a place for a short period of time and it can be even harder when you don’t share common values with those around you.

Building Relationships That Last

Another challenge we’ve faced is building relationships that last. When you’re constantly on the move, it can be hard to maintain relationships with the people you meet along the way.

Filtering Based on Value or Time Spent in a Location

Another challenge we’ve faced is filtering based on value or time spent in a location. It can be tempting to only seek out relationships with people who have similar interests or who you’ve spent a lot of time with in a particular location.

Solutions to Building a Community

Here are some of the solution we’ve found effective in building a community.

Seeking Out Communities That Share Your Values

One solution we’ve found is to seek out communities that share our values. This can be anything from joining a local yoga studio to attending events hosted by organizations that align with your beliefs. We’ve found that by participating in these communities, we’re able to meet people who share our values and connect with them on a deeper level.

Making an Effort to Keep in Touch

The key to maintaining relationships when you’re always on the move is to make an effort to keep in touch. For us, this means reaching out to the people we’ve met via video chat or messaging regularly. We’ve found that by putting in the effort to stay in touch, we’re able to build long-lasting relationships with the people we’ve met while traveling.

Seeking Out Any Kind of Relationship

(This is a work in progress experiment for us as we are writing this) We’ve recently found that seeking out any kind of relationships, regardless of value or time spent in a location could be a great idea. By doing this, we believe that you can build meaningful relationships with people from all walks of life and from all around the world. We think that these relationships can be just as valuable and meaningful as those we’ve built with people who share our interests and values.

Our Bottom Line: The Importance of Building Community

Building a community of people we would be excited to spend time with over a long period of time is critical for living a long and happy life. Having a sense of purpose and people in our lives that we care about and who care about us is what gives us the drive to get up every morning.

This can be a challenge, but it’s also an opportunity to make new friends and create meaningful connections. By seeking out relationships regardless of shared values or time spent in a location, and by actively seeking out opportunities to meet new people, we can overcome the challenges of community building on the road. These relationships can bring us happiness, a sense of purpose, and provide a support system in an otherwise uncertain and constantly-changing environment.

As we continue our journey, we are also considering having a home base where we would spend 4-6 months per year. This might provide us with the opportunity to find people who will always be in such location and with whom we can build a community. We will be discussing this further in a follow-up blog post, so stay tuned!

What about you? If you have any personal experiences or insights on building long-term friendships, please share them in the comments section below. We can’t wait to hear from you.