Back again

A lot has happened since I last wrote in this blog. I had the intention of writing weekly during my travels to Asia and never really got around to it. Even after the trip was over I wanted to go back and review all the amazing experiences and document them so that one day I could look back and smile at all those things that will surely be lost to memory.

I currently find myself a year older and on new adventures. I still refuse to accept a life of tradition and virtue as it has been laid out by our previous generations. Actually perhaps the reason I am writing this today is because I had the fortunate experience of stumbling upon the blog of a friend. She was writing about her struggle with pursuing the life of marriage and traditional success versus that of the modern nomad. It is a struggle that I too find myself in.

I think many people my age (26) find themselves at this great cross roads in life. What do we want to make of ourselves? Where do we want to live? Do we want to have children? What will we want to have accomplished when our lives are over and done? These questions are enormous. There is the emerging study of a phenomenon known as the quarter-life crisis that can attest to that. These questions are nothing new to our generation but I do think the questions have become a bit more overwhelming than they have been in the past. Our modern generation (at least in the USA) enjoys an unprecedented time of relative peace and luxury and endless opportunity. The internet has insured that even if we are from a small town somewhere we will find out about the big world beyond and all the different kind of lives therein. What life of all these lives is worth living?

In previous generations the road of life was often laid our for you. You would follow your father or mothers footsteps, you would till the fields or go into law, you would have a family, grow old, and die. There was not the time or opportunity that we have today to question that path and really ask ourselves “What is the purpose of life? And how do I want to live on a daily basis?” I ofcourse do not mean this in the moral sense but more in the grander sense. The conclusion each one of us draws for those questions is different and we can find comfort and solace that there is no wrong or right answer that applies to everyone. It is a question that we alone can answer.

I for example am content with living the life of a nomad. I do not make much money but I do things I love everyday. I have chosen to sacrifice wealth and stability for the sake of freedom. The other questions of retirement, family, etc. will have to wait.