Tuesday, September 17, 2013

To travel or live in a community?

Since last July, I haven't had a house where I can call my own. I have worked a camp job where I stay for a week, and then have a week off. My idea was/ is, by not having a place, it will force me to go do things all the time and go on some crazy adventures. Since I have moved out, I definitely have, at least in my mind done a lot of stuff that I wanted to do, and more. It has been great seeing new places, meeting new people, and going to visit old friends and family in different places. I have also saved money, but not as much as I thought, because I find myself eating out at restaurants a lot more, because it takes a long time to make food camping, or if I am staying at someone's house, often times I don't have everything I want/ need to cook with. If I am hitch hiking, I need to give myself lots of time to get to where ever I am heading, otherwise it can be stressful and a lot less enjoyable. When I am hitchhiking, I defiantly have the best adventures, because you meet such interesting people, and it turns a trip into a real adventure versus jut driving on your own and not meeting new people. Going to new places and meeting new people is great, but when you do it for a long period of time, you start to miss not having a routine (IE: a house, friends/ family around regularly, sports teams and community groups). You also are limited in doing things like working out, because it makes you all sweaty, and you need to eat properly and have a change of clothes, all of which can be limited on the road. A major thing that is nice about not having a place is you don't have to worry about your house when you are gone, you don't have to clean it, etc; It frees up a surprising amount of time. Today is the 17th of September and I am in the middle of trying to figure out my next step: Whether I start looking into traveling internationally, or start looking for a community to live in. Both options have a lot of draws for me, and even if I decide to stay in a community, I will start planning adventures abroad on a regular basis. If I choose to travel, I am going to start by hitch hiking around the USA, with the intention of getting on a sail boat heading to somewhere tropical. So far, I am really glad that I have chosen to try being homeless, as I can understand the advantages and disadvantages of having a house a lot more, and I have learned to appreciate things on another level (for example: having a bed to sleep in/ sleeping in past sunrise). I would like to thank everyone who has taken me in over the last three months, it has shown me how generous people are when the opportunity arises.Feel free to comment and give me your opinions on this and any experiences you can relate.

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