Your decision to live abroad and work from your laptop is in direct opposition to the choices and values most people hold –therefore not making it good dinner conversation.
Light creates dark, and so it goes; by praising the new lifestyle you seek for its benefits, you’re inadvertently dumping on the lifestyle most people have chosen. Few to none will be genuinely supportive of your lifestyle choice. People in your life may approach the topic awkwardly or try to debate the idea out of existence.
Whatever holds them back is irrelevant to your happiness so don’t think about it too much.
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you. Then you win.” – Mahatma Gandhi
Don’t try to convince them, they outnumber you. Make arrangements, not debates. There’s no value in creating additional obstacles, so you will have to brush off people who think you’re making a mistake, think you’re leaving because you hate them (it happens), or that you’re not very bright.
Their reactions are more telling about how they think than how logical or sound your plans are.
Related: How to Become a Digital Nomad, Step-by-Step
What’s in a Gap Year?
For younger people; the stigma of living beyond the almighty “gap year” is also a fear tactic of the unadventurous, and a lot can be accomplished when you’re open to new ideas and in the right environment.
And it doesn’t matter where you’re from, anyone some place will think it’s scary some other place. The world is what it is, everywhere.
The number of people who have successfully made for themselves a location independent lifestyle are innumerable. You do not need to defend your goals. You are not abandoning anyone or anything, you’re simply changing how you communicate.
That’s about as deep as I go into the mindset of becoming a digital nomad. There is no try, and it’s not as big of a deal as you may be making it out to be.
This an excerpt from Digital Nomad Escape Plan: From Cubicle to Chiang Mai, Thailand (it’s 100% free for download).