Dunedin student Stacey Fletcher reflects on the experience of not having anywhere to call home.
Lately, the term nomad has been thrown around by my flatmates to describe me. It most recently came up when we were discussing summer jobs, and how good they look on your CV to prospective employers as they show you can commit to something and hold down some solid employment. Throughout this conversation I had a slight panic, when I realised I had no proper summer jobs to speak of over the past few years. I was assured, however, it was fine as I could explain to my interviewer I was a nomad.
I have always known the general meaning of the word nomad, but when I actually searched for a proper definition, I was told it meant ''a member of a people having no permanent abode, and who travel from place to place to find fresh pasture for their livestock''.
In a way, I suppose I am slightly nomadic, and I fit most of the first part of the definition. I do have no permanent abode, especially not in New Zealand, and I do a lot of travelling, basically following my family around. When it comes to the part about livestock though, I fall short and begin to think my parents fit the description better than I do. Even though it probably isn't polite to refer to my siblings and pets as livestock, for the purpose of the definition it works quite well. My family has been moving between several locations lately, because my brother and sister's education and sports require them to do so.
This lifestyle of mine began when I was 17, as my family was undergoing relocation to Melbourne. Since I only had one year of school left and would then be attending university on this side of the Tasman, it made more sense for me to finish the year here. Now that I'm at university, it's a bit more acceptable to be a person in my circumstances, as there are many international students living here without their parents, too.
It progressed to an all-new level two years ago when my family moved to India. Since then, it has seemed to be a whirlwind of uprooting as my brother and sister both left our home in India to pursue activities in altogether different countries. This year has been particularly strange, even for my family, and I must admit it was the first time I have been truly a bit put out by how spread out everyone is. There was a day this month when all five of us were in different countries, and that was not a very settling feeling, especially because two were travelling, which made communication almost impossible.
My parents, over the past four years, have at times been very apologetic for my being here in New Zealand on my own. I'm sure they think I'm not being honest when I tell them it hardly ever bothers me, but I really am so used to it that I can't even imagine them living here anymore.
The only things that are a little more difficult when you don't have a home, technically speaking, is going home for holidays - especially the short one-week breaks, as they are not long enough for me to justify flying for 36 hours. Also, having everyone spread across different time zones is a bit of a hassle, as most of the times I need to call my parents they're asleep.
This has meant there has been a few times where I needed to make quick judgement calls with the emergency credit card. So, while it has been a slight hindrance on the summer job front, and I don't think explaining I am a nomad will go down well, or at all, with any potential employer, travelling around to see my parents and siblings is really not that bad a lifestyle.
It can get annoying, especially as, for someone who has to travel internationally at least twice a year, I am extremely nervous about flying, but I enjoy all of the new places I get to see and live among even for just a short time.
