WHY NOMAD?
Why do this? Why live out of a suitcase and not secure myself with a home base? Why not have that “safety net”?
So many reasons. Let me explain.
I know what it’s like to live both lives. The stationary life and the nomad life. I had a home base in Miami and NYC. I lived that stationary life for ten years. A whole decade of committed commited to rent, security deposits, long leases and a bed to come home to. Did I love it? Sure I did. But was something bigger missing? Absolutely.
What was missing?
Adventure. Something bigger. A life less predictable and more momentous. Everyday was groundhog day. Boredom is a disease.
But why become a nomad? Why not just travel here and there and come home when you feel like it?
Because nomading is based around the concept of true freedom. Nomading is not “traveling”, it’s a lifestyle. A way of life. Like eating healthy and going to the gym. Letting your possessions go seems like the scariest, most unwieldy unsettling concept. It feels like you are going to get lost, or become this floating thing floating in space. No anchor, no “safety net” to keep you grounded. That’s what I thought might happen to me.
Until I discovered it’s the complete opposite feeling.
True nomading, true traveling without an official anchor, is actually freeing, uplifting and extremely grounding. Not once have I reminisced about my bed back in Miami. Not once have I regretted selling my 100 throw pillows. Not once have I wished to have my place back and, in fact, countless times I have asked myself “Why didn’t I do this sooner”?
Why was I so hung up on having a home base when all it did was cost me a fortune to hang on to, and cut into my traveling funds? Why was I so sure that having a home base was a form of security and safety when I had access to apartments and rentals abroad that were ten times nicer, cheaper, and more flexible? I remember having bouts of anxiety traveling to Europe and paying for a hotel or an airbnb ON TOP OF keeping my expensive Miami apartment. How is that supposed to make me feel secure?
I know I know.
What if something goes wrong? Don’t you want to know you have a home to go to?
I have news for you.
Things go wrong ALL THE TIME NO MATTER WHAT. There is no safety net. Not even the one you built for yourself. Just a psychological attachment to the notion of one.
I learned how to feel at home where my laptop is. To find security in the current environment and how to handle situations without wanting to run away. I learned that I am not looking to travel the globe. I am looking to live in the world. That is different. This is not a life of a vacationer. This is life on steroids.
So why nomad?
Because it will not only change your life, but it will change the very essence of you. You will become new. Unrecognizable to your friends and family and even to yourself. Is that scary? Actually, it’s revealing. The people meant to be in your life reveal themselves in a more profound way. Because the challenges and the rewards you will face and receive in a lifestyle like this will become goosebump-raising memories that no one could comprehend.
Because I didn’t know what living was until I let it all go.
I’m a one way ticket kinda girl.
“Never get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.”
