The Transit Lounge

Some people love it, some hate it, but one thing is certain — a significant number of people travel for work. How do you maintain a sense of self in strange places?

Alice Ansara is a Sydney-based actor on the rise. Having toured extensively with theatre productions, the 25-year-old recently relocated to Melbourne for two months to shoot a new television comedy series.  

While the news that she’ll have to travel is always welcome, the initial excitement gives way to a slightly less thrilling reality.  

“In the acting game, when you get work there’s a sense that you take it no matter what it is,” says Alice.

“It’s slightly glamorous, but for me the actuality of it is that I really like being in my own house and having my own things around me. I need my dictionary and books!  

“Also it can be lonely if you don’t have your network. Film sets and theatre groups are such a tight-knit circle and if you’re not getting on with the people you’re with, it’s devastatingly lonely.”  

Alice has ways of keeping her spiritual centre while away from home, such as packing bells, candles, and prayer flags.  

“It’s not so much things that remind me of home as things that remind me who I am. I just need to know I’m not a white wall with a generic painting of a cappuccino on it.” 

Kaylea Fearn, 26, works in family ministry co-ordination for St Leonards Uniting Church in Melbourne. At 21 she took a position in communications with the Christmas Bowl, a project of the international development organisation, Christian World Service. She stayed in the role for four years, which involved some overseas and extensive domestic travel.  

“I would tour around the country and talk about third world issues in schools and churches. I went to Sydney for a few days every six weeks,” says Kaylea. “Going overseas was the exciting part, the stuff I lived for and that kept me going when I had to do the travelling domestically. I was passionate about telling people all over Australia about what really goes on but travelling interstate lost its glamour pretty quickly.”  

Kaylea says she has a better understanding of the differences between the states now and a better sense of geography, but in locations where there were no relatives or friends to catch up with during down time, she found herself eating lonely take-away dinners in hotel rooms.  

“I spent a lot of time on the phone talking to family and friends. I’d get very homesick and in the end it was one of the factors I left the job. I felt like I didn’t have roots anywhere,” she says.  

“It had got to the point where friends had stopped calling me to see if I wanted to go out because they thought I wouldn’t be around anyway. It’s hard to know who you are in terms of identity when you’re always living out of a bag.” 

Kaylea discovered that her sense of place is about community, and she now works in a local-community oriented job.  

“Community has an important place in a healthy life and I had lost that sense. I could no longer take classes in anything. I couldn’t do yoga or dancing because if I signed up for a term I knew I’d miss half the time. I couldn’t say yes to family functions because I didn’t know if I was going to be there. I often had to say no to being on rosters at church.  

“I went to church wherever I was and made sure I was being nourished spiritually, but there is nothing like having your own home community.”  

Though Kaylea has highlighted some of the negative aspects of travelling for work she still considers it a great opportunity and one she would encourage other young people to experience.  

“It does open your eyes to this country and its people,” she says. “I’m glad I did it.”