how do you combat loneliness and a few other questions

[raindrop]

I was a traveler for 20 weeks, 800 miles away from home a few years ago. When I decided to take the position, I was ready to experience things that I've never done, like take skiing lessons, go hiking in the mountains, etc. I ended up becoming a recluse. During my assignment, my then fiance cheated and dumped me. I was extremely sad, and had no friends/family to help me thru it since I was 800 miles away. And I was constantly seeing him on FB talk about how in love he is, etc. I became extremely lonely. FFwd to now, I am single, happy and ready to travel again and experience new things. But I'm scared to death of getting lonely again. It was an awful feeling. Do any of you get lonely? How do you combat the feeling?? Maybe my bad experience was because of the terrible breakup and I'm hoping it will be different this time.

Also, I remember my travel agency offering pretty crappy health insurance. I'm healthy and not worried about getting sick as a traveler, but I do worry about accidents: car, skiing, hiking, etc. Do any of you carry supplemental accident insurance??

Lastly, I'd like my stipend and hourly rate to be bundled into one rate. I hate that many agencies offer a lowball hourly rate with the stipend being separate. I've heard of agencies doing that, can anyone tell me which agencies to look at??

[NedRN]

Heard of the ACA, aka Obamacare? You can get your own insurance - just be careful of your options out of state before choosing. Agencies are allowed to reimburse your premium tax-free but you will probably have to ask aggressively.

What is the issue with a stipend? Your take home will be significantly higher everything else being equal. Recent tax rulings may require your agency to pay you M&IE if they provide housing and for some other reasons, I think you will find it difficult to find a no stipend assignment. The exception would be working seasonal directly for a hospital, they won't pay per diems and they will tax your housing no matter what your tax home situation is.

There are lots of ways to combat loneliness as a traveler (or anywhere). Make friends at work. Find an activity you like such as church, hiking (Sierra club), bicycling (bicycle club), running (running club), social dance (tons of clubs), knitting (knitting club)... the options are endless to find group activities. Meetup.com.

I'm not sure FB is helpful, especially looking at ex's pages. It sounds like your issue last time you traveled came directly from your ex. If you do OK without him now where you are, no doubt you will be OK somewhere else.

[SCRN01]

I'm really sorry to hear things didn't go so well for you last time. I think to prevent a ghost effect of your last experience, I would travel somewhere far far away from where you traveled last time. Maybe that will help keep those thoughts from creeping into your mind.

And to prevent loneliness this time, I think it will all depend on how much effort you put forth. If you're not a social person, you're going to need to break out of your shell and comfort zone and ask people if they want to go out for a drink or coffee or bike ride. There are also lots of FB groups for travel nurses you could join and connect with people. Good luck and hope it all works out. It's worth a shot right? If you hate it you can decide one and for all traveling isn't for you.