The Adventure Begins…

“I find I’m so excited, I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head.  I think it’s the excitement only a free man can feel, a free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain.”  -from The Shawshank Redemption

Everything I own is in my car.  My tent and bedding is in the trunk, my clothes and small stock of non-perishable food is in the backseat, and my laptop and remaining books are in the front.

Selling and donating my possessions, giving up the keys to my apartment, and taking off without a set plan is a little nerve-racking, and knowing that I’ve abandoned the (illusions of) security of a home, a bed, and a steady job fills me with deep uncertainty, but also with an excitement and a zest for life brought on by a sense of freedom unparalleled to anything I’ve felt before.

I’ve officially begun my life as a nomad.

Why a nomad?  Besides the freedom, the excitement, the adventure, and the extreme break from the norm, I found a post on a very cool blog that I feel explains being a nomad very well.  Since it’s a decently long post, I’ll just quote the paragraphs that I related to the most, that puts reason behind the tugging I feel toward such a lifestyle.  You can also check out the whole post here.

“When voluntarily chosen, nomadism is not a profession,  lifestyle, or restless spiritual quest. It is a stable and restful state of mind where constant movement is simply a default chosen behavior that frames everything else. True nomads decide they like stable movement better than rootedness, and then decide to fill their lives with activities that go well with movement. How you are moving matters a lot more than where you are, were, or will be. Why you are moving is an ill-posed question.

…In a way, nomadism is a more basic instinct for humans. Rootedness is natural for trees. Legs demand movement. The movement is the cause, not the effect.  Just as the mantra for rootedness is location, location, location, it is movement, movement, movement for nomadism. When humans grow roots, strange new adaptations appear to accommodate restless brains.

…When you bind naturally restless feet, the minds that have evolved to animate them seek movement elsewhere.

…Geography is just too fundamental to our psychology. If we aren’t moving, it is because there is too much friction and cost. Wanderlust never goes away. It merely becomes too costly to sustain as you age.

…Ownership and community life change from being stock concepts (defined by things you accumulate) to flow concepts (defined by things you pass through and that pass through you).  Identity starts to anchor to what you are doing rather than who you are. Social life acquires, due to its permanently transient nature, a certain poignancy that it lacks in rooted contexts. Even routine errands like grocery shopping and doing the laundry become minor adventures that require your full attention and engagement.

Nomadism is, in a way, the most accessible pattern of mindful living.”

Giving satiety to my natural restlessness and innate wanderlust, making adventures out of even the most mundane tasks, and involving myself in mindful living in order to get the most out of life and avoid boring routines?

Hell yes.

As if that’s not enough, this quote from a post in a blog called The Art of Non-Conformity adds further motivation:

“Why travel?  Because when you leave behind the familiar, you can’t help but be changed by the foreign.

Because comfort zones become constricting zones over time.

Because the world was meant to be experienced, not imagined.

Because you’ll meet people who are different than you. (Are we all the same? Not really, but that’s OK.)

Because it will frustrate and annoy you at times, and you’ll be better because of it.”

This couldn’t sound any more like exactly what I need.  If it sounds interesting to you too, you might search yourself and think about if being a temporary nomad would be right for you.  If it isn’t, that’s okay, there are plenty of other ways to push your boundaries, meet new people, and live life on your own terms.  All you have to do is get out there.