I am a little more than two months in to my life on the road. When I left my home in Kentucky on June 1st of this year, I was as prepared as I could possibly be at that time. During this time I have encountered several new people, places and experiences. I’ve learned a lot already, one being that it is more challenging than I had anticipated keeping up with this blog! But aside from that, here are three things that kind of stand out for me:
1. Life doesn’t have to be a rat race. When I first left Kentucky, it was only three days after leaving my job. I drove straight to Knoxville, Tennessee because I was helping my youngest daughter move, and I was the designated Uhaul driver. My oldest daughter followed in my car. It wasn’t until the following morning that it hit me- There was no place I had to be and no specific time to be anywhere. I have to admit that it felt weird, and I mean very weird. I had to force myself to slow down and not feel rushed. It was a serious mental adjustment. It got me to thinking about how much of my life I had spent being in a hurry. In a hurry to get to work, to get home, to get anywhere. Why is that? For me, it was because I had to work to make money to pay the bills that I had accumulated. In other words, the rat race was self-inflicted. Now, I still have to eat, pay for car insurance, and put gas in my car. What has changed in my life is that I have intentionally decreased the things in my life I have to pay for. I have also changed how I earn money, which is primarily through writing/editing at this time. All of this may change, but for now I am no longer a participant in the stress inducing rat race of life.
2. The right people and opportunities show up. I remember reading statements like that for years, usually written by people who had taken the plunge and went all in on their dream. It all sounded good in theory, but I admit there was a part of me that wondered if it’d be as true for me as it had been for others. I mean, it sounds too good to be true, right? It may sound like a pipe dream, but it’s real. It’s so real that when you experience it you’ll get goosebumps and find yourself looking up at the sky and wonder if perhaps someone is looking out for you after all. You have to do your part, so understand that. You can’t just do nothing and wish for things to happen. There’s a lot of action involved, and it is when you’re in the midst of that action that cool (sometimes mysterious) things begin happen. I had a plan, up to a point, when I left my home state. I didn’t really know what would happen once I reached the end of those plans, but what I found was that was when the real adventure began. I have met people that I would have not have met, and these people all offered something that has helped me carry on. Sometimes it was writing work, another time a timely word that spoke to my soul, other times it was invitations to places I could stay. I had no way of knowing in advance that these things would happen. You have to have a certain amount of belief or faith that things will work out once you have made a decision. I did and my experiences have been mind blowing.
3. New meaning for being comfortable. It’s human nature to seek and desire comfort. We all want to be warm, dry, safe, and fed. We all want change without having to change. We also like for things to kinda remain the same, because change is scary. Nothing inherently wrong with those things, except that the human spirit craves adventure and new experiences. I’m no different than you, so when I set out on the open road I had to adjust to new routines (or no routines), places, and people. I had a lot of adjusting to do, mentally speaking. It was uncomfortable, and it was amazing. The experience has helped to be more flexible, less bothered by a change in plans, and to simply roll with it. Life is more interesting, fun, and less stressful. There are times when I still want things to go a certain way, or get perturbed when a plan falls through, but those times are happening less frequently. You have to face it, a life that is predictable is boring, and boredom leads to feelings of discontent.
I could write a volume on how different life is after gaining a deeper understanding of these three things, but I’ll save that for another time.
If you’ve read this far, here’s a bonus for you! It’s a two minute video I made that has several cool pics/vids from my journey and a song I wrote last year prior to the beginning of my adventure. Hope you enjoy it!
Comments