Introduction: The rites of passage

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Growing up, I suffered from a serious case of wanderlust.

I wanted to know where everything went; streams, roads, trails, even electrical wires.

All I wanted to do was explore.

I loved movies and cartoons of the Old West and the fontier, showing daring men and women discovering a fabulous future.

While doing homework, I would look at the sunset over the hills beyond our home, dreaming of the day I would travel over those hills to the land of adventure I knew lay on the other side.

Of course, I learned soon enough that on the other side of those hills was a neighborhood just like the one I lived in, and going still further merely brought me to the next town over.

I would need to travel much further to reach the land of my dreams.




Time passed, and dreams faded.

I went to college, got a job, and worked on building the sort of life one lives in the modern United States.

The dream never completely died, though.

I took short road trips for several of my vacations, and thoroughly enjoyed them.

The sort of long trip of discovery I imagined as a youth was still a fantasy, however.

Several things converged to change that.




The first was the Great Recession.

I managed to survive with job intact, but the threat it implied caused me save every cent I could find.

It also prompted the sort of soul searching that is impossible in more prosperous times.

My life, while prosperous and stable, was in a serious rut.

I had hid from the pain by buying things.

I started exploring my options.




The second factor was that I discovered the Boston Burner community (NOTE: parts of site NSFW).

I like art a great deal, and this community is dedicated to making art and creativity a central focus of a meaningful life.

It’s based on the famous Burning Man festival in Nevada, and tries to promote its principles year round.

One very important one for me is that value is based on what one creates shares, and experiences; rather than the type of work you do and the things you own.

This, for me, was revolutionary.

For many people in this group, dropping a soul crushing job to pursue something meaningful is well worth it even with the obvious financial risk.




The third factor was The Speech.

If you work in high tech you have probably heard it.

The Speech is delivered by the CEO, where s/he lays out their vision for the future of the company based on current market trends, and at the end breaks the news that a large portion of the audience won’t be part of it.

This event really moved the questions about my future into high gear.

While running my budget, I discovered that I had saved quite a bit of cash.

Enough, in fact, to take some time to travel and still have funds left for the job hunt afterward.

At this point, my wanderlust came back in earnest.




The final factor was the year.

I have a milestone birthday this year; one of those scary ones that Hallmark makes specific cards for.

If I ever wanted to travel for a long time and see the country that my family has occupied for almost three centuries, the window was closing rapidly.

The trip would certainly make for an amazing birthday present.

If that wasn’t enough, this year’s Burning Man (NOTE: parts of site NSFW) theme is Rites of Passage.

This birthday, for better or worse, is definitely a rite of passage, and the actual day occurs during the festival.




In the end, I decided to take the plunge.

Opportunities like this come along very rarely, and now is the time to seize it.

The road is the adventure, and this blog is the trail left behind.

Join me for the journey.

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Comments

[Cynthia Hammer]

Your writing really pulls me in!
HI I just finished reading about your 2 week trip to West Virginia--and now I am hooked. Loved this first entry about how and why you are undertaking this next big trip--and I guess the blog is your contribution to Boston Burner--nice work.