Mind or Body — one of the two oughta be on the road
I was sitting on the floor of Atlanta Airport International Terminal, trying to crunch in the last email before going off to my solo adventure in Costa Rica. I bought the ticket just the night before. I had planned to take a several days off for the memorial weekend but didn’t have time to think where to go until this week. I haven’t booked any hotel or looked up anything about travel itinerary. Right next to me, the last group of teenager volunteer groups dressed in the same T-shirts were boarding. The gate was going to close in 5 minutes, and I was still working as if the world is going to stop without me.
Now, in the air, I have next to me the cheap champaign that came with a much needed upgrade, passport, immigration forms, the seemingly luxurious hot towel, and my solo backpack. I’m off going to a country that I know almost nothing about with no plans at all. Yet I realized that I am so relaxed and comfortable facing the complete unknown.
I thought to myself, why is that exactly?
Before I started with Seeed, I pretty much lived in airports, hotels, flights and airbnbs for the year of 2014. Most consultants do that, I went for the extreme. When I started to travel to San Francisco from New York every week for a project, it quickly became clear to me that paying for an apartment for $1400 dollars in New York does not make sense if I only spend 6 days (two weekends) maximum every month. So I let go some of my stuff, boxed up the rest, put the essentials in a big suitcase, and started a nomadic lifestyle.
That was April, 2014.
In the next several months, I quickly expanded my comfort zone. At first I stayed in five star hotels like most consultants would do on any travel project. But I quickly realized that 1)it is a waste of money (whoever’s money that is) and 2) it’s soooo boring. So I started living in airbnb’s and then got a chance to explore almost every neighborhood in SF. I wanted to get to know the community here better, so I went to live in a co-living space/commune (the embassy if you are curious about it) for two weeks, hanging out with tech entrepreneurs everyday talking about their new product launch. I went to all kinds of random events, tech conferences, and meetups, got to know a lot of people who later became dear friends for me in the valley, and just kept exploring. In the meantime, I still kept my presence in New York and keep throwing in weekend excursions and random trips onto it. By November, on delta alone, I think I flew at least 100,000 miles. Because I don’t have a permanent place to live, there’s not such a thing called ‘staying in’ for me. I can get tired sometimes, but it usually take less than a day before the thought of ‘what’s the next destination’ come to me. Out side of the US, I went to Mexico, Peru and China, some for work, some personal vacation.
That was a strange and peculiar lifestyle.
For 6 months, there’s no such thing called ‘routine’. I never have the same set of keys for more than a week. I don’t have a go-to restaurant or home cooked meal. I don’t have a set place for workout. Every week, I lived in a new place, with some new people, in a new neighbourhood. I also never bought full size shampoo for 6 months.
This might seem strange but I needed and enjoyed the mindset derived from this nomadic lifestyle. And it was crucial that I was working then too. I’ve backpacked for an extended amount of time. That kind of experience in itself feels like an escape from the reality. But being on the road “in reality” gives me another level of revelation. What I learned the most from it is that there’s really no boundary as to what you can do, in terms of your career choice, in terms of the people you get to know, in terms of your future prospects. But it’s only till now that I realize how much of a luxury that is, to constantly have the freedom to be on the road.
Of course, many things can go wrong in the constant hustling. Airbnb hosts can go missing and leave me having no place to stay. Not to mention the number of nights that I have spent in the airport due to flight delay. My stuff was at one point spread out in 5 friends’ places in three different cities, so trying to locate down a particular object becomes a challenging task. AND I’m limited to certain number of outfits. What helped with the situation is that I had one set location for work, so I put one suitcase there (thanks to my team at Center for the Edge for not being weird out by it☺) . I also need to give thanks to many friends also who have let me crash at their place, so I always know that, if somehow things doesn’t work out, I can just hop on a cab and knock on their door. The support I got from colleagues and friends gave me a lot of comfort.
This lasted till December of last year. Then I decided to join Seeed in SF. I moved all of my stuff and my car here to the west coast, I moved into the Seeed house, and then I started running the US operation. With any startup, it’s almost granted that work is endless. But I also quickly realize that I don’t thirst for going away to a physical location as much as I used to now. Because with my current job, everyday is like an adventure.
Well, ok. I might not be too convincing given that I am now sitting in a hostel in Costa Rica writing this all up. But I think I’ve got a point here. This post goes back to a sentence that my colleague Danny said, “Body or mind, one of the two should be on the road”. Just as I realized now how much a luxury that was to be able to be on the road physically for 6 months, I should also show greater gratitude that I can take my own liberty to adventure with my mind and capability. I’ve trained myself to become used to adapting different situations in the physical adventure. Now I am constantly learning to be more open to a different set of challenges and changes.
Today, as I was going through security, filling in immigration forms, listening to the flight attendant speaking in Spanish, feeling the humid air touching my skin, I felt so relaxed. All of these things registered in my mind as signals of freedom and getaway. Every time I come down to the Americas, it’s always with different friends, trying to getaway from a different set of worries and troubles, asking different questions, looking for different answers. It’s as if this continent has witnessed me grow, and I’ve gotten so used to this transformational experience. This is also why I feel so comfortable jumping on the plan with absolutely no idea where I am going to sleep tonight.
When it comes to travel, getting out of the comfort zone itself is a comfort zone for me.
I hope I can train my mind to be the same through this entrepreneurial journey.
Pura Vida
