This is the question I always ask when I hear about “digital nomads”. Just about every job I had or friends have made us go back to the office after the lockdown broke.

Like you, I’m not a DN but do enjoy reading DN related posts and am, kind of, in a position to be able to do it if I choose.

I work as a computer and web application developer. A jack of all software development trades really (not my preference) and contract, via a contracting company, to a department of the U.S. Government related to environmental study and research.

I actually requested to go 100% remote in 2019, just before the pandemic, to allow me to move out of a state and region I felt did not align with my way of life, ethics, and weather preferences. If I had been a federal employee it would not have been possible, but one of the few benefits of contractor status was the ability to have this kind of request approved. At the time I was one of only a very few number of people in my office doing it. My restriction is that I can’t work from outside of the U.S or take my work laptop across the border.

Until I came across the DN sub on Reddit around 6 months ago I didn’t really consider the possibility of DNing around the U.S. but I’ve since read of many people doing it and it is now on my radar as an option for the future. I need to look into the financial realities of it all because the U.S. is, in general, high COL and even though where I am now (PNW) is incredibly expensive I feel multiple short term rentals would be even more so and that would be beyond what I can afford. Perhaps some kind of van life would work, but then does that lifestyle make it something other than DNing? Beyond that I’m working to build my own business. If I can do that the the world would become my oyster. We shall see. Until then, I’ll lurk here (thanks for creating a Lemmy DN community here, the others on Lemmy appear to be languishing) and dream.