The Highs and Lows of Life as a Digital Nomad
By: Carmella Guiol
Tags: Freelancing, Technology, Travel, Digital Nomads, Social Media

The Highs and Lows of Life as a Digital Nomad

Photo by Picography from Pexels

We used to be jealous of digital nomads until we spent three weeks working from the road.

During the past three weeks, my partner, Norbert, and I traveled 4,347 miles from South Florida to Canada and southward again. On the way, we broke bread with friends at their dinner tables and shared stories from the road. We met the newest baby in our ever-expanding clan and found out that another friend was pregnant with twins. We survived a possible tornado and drove through many miles of inclement weather. We hiked four miles underground in one of the largest caves on Earth and got soaked in the spray of the majestic Niagara Falls. We harvested wild medicinal plants and feasted on sweet summer berries. We crossed an international border four times and were only heavily questioned half of the time. Along the way, we visited some of my old stomping grounds: college, summer camp, and a barn that used to be my place of residence once upon a time.



And through it all, Norbert worked. Rather than take three weeks’ vacation, Norbert decided to work from the road. Our car became an office on wheels. I was Norbert’s secretary, typing messages to his colleagues while he dictated from the driver’s seat. He used gas station breaks to take conference calls and work out kinks in the software system. Whenever we reached our destination, out came his bare-bones workspace: a computer monitor, keyboard, and mouse. He set up his makeshift office in farmhouses, guest bedrooms, living rooms, friends’ offices — anywhere that had an internet connection and a power socket.



These days, we hear lots of stories about digital nomads making a living while having the adventure of a lifetime. It sounds so romantic, so exciting, so idyllic. But when I asked Norbert about his three-week stint as a digital nomad, the first word out of his mouth was “stressful.”



As a software developer and a writer, Norbert and I can do our jobs from anywhere on the planet. We have the privilege of flexibility. But although we can do our work from anywhere, it’s not always pleasant. It’s great that we have the option, and it certainly comes in handy from time to time, but I’d say it isn’t exactly ideal. There’s nothing necessarily romantic about waving your phone around in the rain, trying to capture service for a conference call that you’re already late for.



As a freelance writer, I don’t have the same stresses that come with a traditional job. Of course, I have emails to answer and phone calls to make, but most of my work happens with me sitting my butt in the chair. I don’t have a million people to respond to or manage. But the past few years being in a partnership with Norbert has shown me what a more conventional work situation looks like. Even though he can be more flexible than most clock punchers, he still has many of the trappings of a regular job: colleagues, bosses, meetings, budgetary requests/approvals, hiring/firing. Not only is he a software developer, but he’s a manager, meaning that besides doing his own work, he has to organize other people and make sure they’re doing their work, too. Phew. Who’s not jealous?



From where I’m standing (next to Norbert), I’d say a modern-day IT job operates on WhatsApp, Band Camp, Blue Jeans, Slack, Zoom, Skype, and so many other digital applications that it makes my head spin! Even though I’m not the one with a job that requires constant internet connectivity and productivity application overload, I’m overwhelmed. Whilst I’d rather exist in a WiFi-free universe, that simply isn’t possible for my partner-in-crime.



But in the midst of conference calls and work deadlines, we managed to have a good time. This trip certainly felt like a different beast than the solo road trips of yore! Not only did we have to navigate strange roads and bad weather, but we also had to maneuver our way through a packed work schedule, making sure that we had a solid phone connection at specific times and a flat space for Norbert to set up his rough-and-ready office. We’re glad it was an option so that he was able to join me on the road trip, but it certainly added an element of stress to the whole operation.

We’re back in Puerto Rico now and it was quite a joy waking up this morning in our little yellow house. We still have a lot of unpacking and moving in to do… But this morning, Norbert walked the fifteen minutes to his office, and I think he’s quite content about being back at his desk.