In high school I competed in Policy Debate, which means that the words “Resolved” and “Resolution” have very little to do with New Years for me, and very much to do with 1ACs, evidence, and the intricacies of US Policies. That said, the new year does provide a good window to examine that which is driving me, the things that I’ll be spending my free time and paid time working towards, thus I give you this examination of that which I have resolved, and still resolve to do.
Fourteen months ago and some change I made a covenant with the most amazing woman that has ever existed to love and cherish her, and to stay by her side until she dies. Those fourteenth months have been the best months ever in my life, and whether or not the trend continues, I’m her adoring lover and eternal best friend until my soul departs this gigantic world. Daily I will ask the questions that fill my head constantly: “how can I make her happier?” “What does she need that I can give her?” “What does she want that I can give her?” and quite often, “What am I doing wrong right now?” But my overarching, all-encompassing question is always “How can I best show her love at this moment?” I look forward to a year of understanding how to better answer that question each day.
Fourteen months from now the two of us hope to embark on a wild and crazy adventure – an 8 month road trip covering a great deal of the outer edges of the US. From Nashville to San Diego to Alaska to Maine to the Florida Keys and home to Nashville (with a great deal of stops in between). There is no overarching “why,” rather it is a natural way for us to achieve a great deal of our desires and fuel our passions in one big crazy act. Here’s a couple of our reasons:
Obviously, an eight month road trip covering 15-16,000 miles means that the people undertaking it enjoy traveling, and that is our most shallow reason for the trip. We want to travel, and see the US, and meet wonderful people, and understand a little more about life than we might learn by just staying in Nashville. But most jobs today grant us 2-3 weeks of vacation a year, and you always want to conserve that and use it sparingly; one big vacation and then a few days here and there for other traveling. Traveling within these confines inevitably forces you into tourist mode – see and do everything in a compact time so that you’ve “seen” wherever you may have traveled to. We don’t like that.
Travel for us, is to take our time and to soak in the culture of wherever the road has taken us. Time moves differently in each city, people have different habits and norms. Oh sure, you can travel to a hundred cities in the US, staying at the same hotel, eating at the restaurants, shopping at the same stores, and always feeling “at home.” That is exactly what we hate about travel – the chain-ification of America. But to scratch beyond that surface requires curiosity, patience, and a healthy does of adventurousness. So we’ll spend anywhere from a week to a month in cities that we want to visit, camping out somewhere close to the city or crashing at friends’ houses for a few nights, and then taking the time to wander streets, explore the unknown, talk to locals and get recommendations. In this way, hopefully, we will experience the real culture of the cities we visit, rather than just experience the amalgamation of Chain America.
To take this road trip will not only require giving up our jobs, but also our home. We’ll pack up important stuff into a storage unit and give away the rest. What little we decide is worth taking, we’ll pack into a camper that we are planning on buying this year. One of those small 13-foot models that tows behind small SUVs. Just some sort of permanent structure to sleep in if its raining and to do a little cooking in. Otherwise, we’ll sleep in a tent and enjoy the freedoms of being rent-free. But this forsaking of our home is fitting too because a purpose for Freya in this trip is to explore how cities around the US deal with the issue of homelessness. Her dream is to help those who do not have a home, specifically families and kids (this is a larger problem than you imagine, it is just typically much more invisible), but in what form and how she doesn’t know yet. So this trip will give us a chance to volunteer and serve at shelters and ministries around the country to understand what works, what doesn’t, and who has some really good ideas.
My passion has always been film though, and this trip is an exciting chance for me to develop more of my understanding regarding the medium. I hope to buy a Canon 7D in the coming months and start the process of familiarizing myself with the gear, so that while on the road I can document. Home movie style documentation will no doubt occur on our trip, but I also want to make short documentaries that are film festival quality. So it is my goal to seek out people carrying on antique craft-making skills, or unique museums, or anything of interest really, and to make short 10 minute-ish documentaries about these people or things. First of all, to actually document and remember, but second to refine my skills at editing and creating and mostly just because I love to make films and I don’t get a chance to do what I want most of the time these days.
One of the things I do get to do a great deal these days, and Freya too, is to learn. We may have both dropped out of college, but there’s not a week gone by that we don’t learn something new. I’ve been on a history kick lately and Freya has been reading about Art History and also Dissociative Identity Disorder (formerly Multiple Personality Syndrome), meanwhile we both love to read fiction and poetry. But book learning can only get you so far. So while we’re traveling we’ll be stopping in whatever museums catch our fancy; wandering through, reading all the signs (because both of us are Those People) and soaking it all in.
Those are four of many reasons, but they are why we are resolved to take this trip, and this year we are resolved to save every dollar we can towards this trip. Of course, when we take it we will take many pictures and make many funny videos and video blogs to keep everyone up to date on the things we do, posting the documentaries, and overall trying to remind everyone that yes, we are crazy, but we’re the type of crazy that you’re envious of.
There are many other things I have been and continue to be resolved to do; building better friendships, learning new skills, reading all of Dostoevsky’s major works, and writing a screenplay. These things will happen in due time. As it stands now, I have ginormous goals to carry me through the next two years (well, marriage carries me through forever), and I find it much better to stand resolved to do bigger things than it is to stand resolved to go to the YMCA regularly. Which is, now that I think of it, something I very much need to do.
Wow, this sounds awesome, Winston. I hope you and Freya have a blast. (I know you will.) Have you checked out Chris Guillebeau’s Art of Nonconformity site? He talks a lot about travel and living a “non-conformist” life. (I’m still in the middle of reading his “Art & Money” ebook.)
You’ll be glad you did this while still under 30. I know i’m only 7 years older than you, but it’s a lot harder to do this kind of thing once you have a kid.