Joining the Exodus

Rona Marsh
Nov 5 · 2 min read

Sometimes, we just need to do something different with our lives.

I made the decision back in March, after returning from a short two-week vacation to Thailand. A decision that had been lurking in the shadows of nearly every thought, every action, for so many unhappy years. A decision to liberate myself from the proverbial grind and let my creative self out of storage.

I’ve always had an aversion to traditional jobs, to working for the sake of a paycheck. They don’t call it “soul-crushing” because it’s fun…

For eight long years I’ve been driving semi trucks to earn those paychecks. And though they were, for the most part, pretty good paychecks, it was the very definition of “soul-crushing” work. Long, lonely hours; dirty, stinking truck stops; demon-spawn in the form of rush-hour traffic; health-defeating sedentary life surrounded by fast-food. I could go on. It’s a long list.

Not to say it was all terrible. America is a big, beautiful place, and getting paid to see it alleviates a small bit of those horrors. But the tiny joys and brief happy moments were usually swamped by the monotonous onslaught of garbage a trucker must slog through. I did, however, listen to a lot of audiobooks…

And always in the back of my head was the knowledge that I was wasting what small amount of creative talent I may have chasing someone else’s dream. Ya basta!

I grew up creative: drawing, writing, playing music, designing and building things. It’s these creative pursuits that bring my life meaning, and lacking them is exactly why my life has become meaningless. This changes now.

I have quit my soul-sucking work driving trucks, and will be leaving America this New Years Eve for Thailand with enough savings to live, hopefully, for two years in Southeast Asia. This is my re-birth, my re-awakening. I am choosing to pursue a life I consider worth living.

There are some small fears perched on the shoulders of this decision. I’ve grown used to a certain level of financial security, and I’m truly not getting any younger. But I believe that dusting off my creative energies and pursuing this life with vigor and purpose will bring a new and deeper sense of security. And well-being.

So hello, nice to meet you all. I hope you’ll join me on this journey as I remember what it is to be creative. As I shed my old life and its associated dead weight. As I shake loose the comfortable and familiar in pursuit of a Dream.

I am a writer now. This here is the proof…

Rona Marsh

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Slipping the tethered bonds of serfdom, one word at a time…

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