Lost On The Right Path to home in the USA

 

I’ve always dreamt of traveling; whether it was backpacking through Europe, driving cross-country…anything really. But the rational, responsible side of me always stood in the way. First, I had to get through college, then it was law school, next I had to get a job, then build a career, etc. As my 30’s approached, things were finally starting to come together, but the life I had been working so hard to attain was never quite right. Never enough money or enough (vacation) time to do the things I really wanted to do. So, here I found myself: 34 years old, never married, childless, less than thrilled with my career, saddled with a mortgage payment and abundant student loans and though I had so much for which to be thankful, I had never taken a moment to sit back and think about what it was that I really wanted.

I had recently read a book about obtaining the things you want out of life. The basic premise of the book was that you get out of life what you expect to get and what you believe you will get and you must plan for those things. If you expect the bad or dwell on the negative, that is what you shall get. If, however, you expect to get the things you want, and plan to receive those things that’s what you shall get. So, with that in mind, I decided to start planning my trip…cross country.

Lacking the wherewithal and experience to actually undertake such a feat, I began small. I started gathering travel books, googling cities, printing off maps, purchasing gear and most scary: contemplating the financial resources available to me. I’ve made some financial decisions that every financial advisor would, without any debate, consider crazy, financial suicide, if you will. The funny thing about money that I discovered was, that it just buys you stuff. Stuff. I don’t need stuff. And there is always going to be stuff and a way to buy stuff. I want(ed) experiences.

So without any plans for the future or a source of income and a boatload of bills, I quit my very stable job and began my jaunt across the country, intent on visiting every state. For the first 7-10 days, headed southwest from Pennsylvania, it rained daily which, in hind-sight, was a great relief from the heat. I ate and drank local cuisine, hiked and camped, met new people, reunited with old friends and distant relatives kind enough to open their homes to me. I thrived in the cool, sunny weather, the beaches, the laid back feel of the west coast. Then I fell in love while driving along streams and mountains with wildlife abound in the mid-west. I spent late summer touring the quaint, lovely little New England states with nowhere to be and all day to get there. I visited national parks, forests, deserts, cities of great historical significance, restaurants featured on TV shows, small towns, big cities. I also saw the areas of this country I was previously too fortunate to know existed. The small, poor, rickety towns where front yards were nothing more than graveyards for broken down vehicles and grocery stores lacked fresh fruits and vegetables or there were simply no grocery stores at all. I drove through the environmental ruins of northwest Texas where nothing was to be seen but a two-lane blacktop road, oil drills and other land-depleting machinery. I learned as much in the areas I dreaded as in the areas I loved.

What I discovered is that my home is where I belong. It provides me all of the things I need, most of what I want, opportunities for more and most significantly, my family and friends. I travelled to and through 40 states, in excess of 14,000 miles in 49 days, with more to come, to discover that my home really is…MY HOME.

About the Author: I am a 35 year old lawyer who has been practicing law for a decade now.  After years of making “responsible” decisions and planning for the future, while daydreaming about doing something adventurous and egoistic,  I finally decided to abandon responsibility and go make some dreams come true.  I’ve quit my job, threw some necessities in the car– including the greatest necessity of all and the love of my life, Quinn (my dog), and headed across the country.  I had/have no plan of action for when I’m forced back to reality.  No job lined up, no trust fund, nobody to lean on financially and no independent ability to survive (financially) without a job.

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