From settler to nomad

Last week I solidified my commitment to the idea of long term travel. I quit my job and started selling anything I didn’t need, to begin my travels in Asia. A region I’ve visited only once, for a weekend.

Explaining why isn’t hard — getting people to understand why is. So I’ll start with the former. Simply put. Connectivity is at an all time high. The necessity of living on (or near) location are, in certain industries, becoming questionable. So why not?

The option of long term travel doesn’t apply to everyone. But the question “Why not?” should extend to questioning the necessity to physically sit in an office. There are careers that can certainly be considered the lucky ones. I’m not that much of an idealist. I can’t pretend that there isn’t a certain demographic that simply cannot entertain the notion of long term travelling. There are even those that simply don’t feel a need to travel. So I guess what I’m questioning is that if we work in a digital age, then why aren’t we exploiting that for its benefits of which, commercially and personally there are many?

An attempt at understanding

Moving away from a static living isn’t easy. It’s made out to be pretty incredible and the concept of a nomad has many people dreaming of long stays on sandy white beaches and a laptop. The kinds you see travelling workers posting on Instagram. While this is certainly a message of their own successes, the reality is there is a lot of work in-between.

When you tell your employer of 5 years — the owners of that dream you had growing up — that you’re leaving. You can’t help but feel a little stupid.

Especially when there was nothing at all wrong with the job. Fantastic people, interesting work, plenty of problems to solve and generous pay.

So in order to try to explain enough to reach an understanding for those concerned friends or family, there’s a need to look back.

When people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I said Web Developer. The standard reaction was incredulous looks and raised eyebrows. It was unconventional dream at best back then. However, I didn’t really want to be a Web Developer I found out. I just wanted to turn nothing into something. I wanted to solve problems. I want to find solutions. This was my dream.

12 years ago when I first started working towards this dream of mine, I was certainly ignorant to a lot of things. Scales of complexity. Work efficiency. The value of other people. I worked for myself at a rate of $9/h for several years. I knew the rate was awful. But I enjoyed being paid to learn. I struggled, quite often, to move on to my next client quickly enough to make ends meet. I made some big mistakes. I definitely wasted a lot of time. I ended up working 20 hour days in my early teens. I even became a recluse for a few years.

Despite this, and the risk of being misunderstood as a masochistic, I still love having that drive toward something I consider greater than myself. Seeing something grow gives me a high. Starting from nothing and getting to something. Which naturally lead me to create my own projects. Some failed. Some were successful. All of them were great experiences.

I lived that life of uncertainty for 6–7 years before moving into that dream job of mine. But somewhere along the line, through either just spending too much time working, being in an environment of stability too long, being involved with too many projects or through several burnouts. I began to lose the drive for my own personal projects. The very drive that started my career in the first place.

So I’m leaving stability and embracing insecurity and instability for all it has to offer. To make more mistakes. To fail, early and often. To continue to stay hungry and foolish and to exploit the connectivity to enjoy different cultures and countries along the way. This completely makes sense to me. At least while I’m young enough to be so foolish.

There are plenty of ways travelling solo can end. Both good and bad. But as a friend once told me. Life is less about the milestones and more about the journeys in-between.

So the decision, while appearing mad and irrational to most, is driven by the acceptance of my enjoyment for uncertainty and the acknowledgement that the comfort of stability is a dream for the future, for the days where you can take enjoyment from the financial security of others.

Thanks for reading. If you enjoyed my post or are looking to see how things go, you can follow me on twitter.