Society’s expectations to find a career with a whopping 40+ hours a week just to get by while filling the pockets of an elite few is ingrained into our minds as the only option. Ask just about any 20 something year old what they are stressing out the most about in their future: finding a job, paying bills, securing a place to live, finding a spouse. And these days its not even just those of us in our twenties… its everyone. It is no longer acceptable to pursue wanderlust, happiness, and freedom. Many of us have forgotten the real purpose of life- existence and connection to each other and the Earth.

A common scenario in my last year of college consisted of my roommate and I winding down at night and speaking about our plans for the future, or the lack there of.  I began to joke that I was just going to buy myself an old hippie van and take off to wander the world. It all started as a joke…. a dream that couldn’t possibly be attained. Or at least that is what I thought until I found a like-minded community.

After spending valentines weekend at a Rainbow gathering in the mountains of Arizona and another weekend in Asheville, North Carolina crashing on strangers’ living room floors I had heard enough success stories and seen enough generosity in the wonderful souls that I met to know that this was a dream that COULD be attained. Weeks later I was learning to drive stick on my very own hippie van. I found a 1980 Volkswagen Vanagon equipped with a bed, sink, stove, and fridge, worked a few odd jobs to save up cash, and began researching. Six months later I write from the couch of a complete stranger over 1,000 miles from home.

The lifestyle I have chosen comes with its obvious complications but I can say with complete confidence that if I could go back and choose the lifestyle expected by society, I would still pick the road every time.

I am hoping that by writing this blog I can inspire others to live the life they dream of and to take chances even when others tell them it won’t work or they can’t do it. I hope people get to see and experiences other walks of life through my writing and be influenced to not be so quick to judge others different than themselves. In this way I hope to make the world a little bit of a smaller place by bringing humanity closer together.

As stated by St. Augustine….

“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page”

Use the categories menu to the right to sort through posts on intentional communities I have stayed with, nonprofit organizations I have visited, and my stories from the road.