For years I have fantasized about what it would be like to lead a life that isn't measured by the size of your house, the color of your grass or how big that number on your W2 is at the end of the year. What would it be like to have a life that is instead measured by one's thriftiness, resourcefulness, creativity and experiences. It has never made sense to me to sell so much of your time, and ultimately your life, in order to have two weeks a year that are truly your own to do with what you like. It seems like so much of our lives gets donated to our possessions. There is too much overhead and upkeep associated with our houses, cars and all the other things that we fill our lives with. What would happen if we focused, not on the things that we fill our house with, but on what we fill our time with?
I decided that the best way to answer this question was to combine my vehicle and my domicile into one possession. This would allow me to live rent free while keeping a roof over my head. It would also force me to downsize my whole life to a much more efficient size. My life was coming to a threshold and so I felt that it might be time to put this idea into practice. I wanted go on an extended journey to do as much mountain biking as I could.
I eventually settled on a 30-year-old Toyota Dolphin with a stuck odometer and an odor of cigarettes and cat pee. It wasn't pretty and it wasn't fast but it would get me from place to place in relative comfort. It had all I would require to live in it full time. A small bathroom complete with sink and shower, a three way refrigerator a table that I could convert into a bed/couch and a master bed that was somewhere in between a twin and a full. Now all that was left was to make sure it was ready for the journey.
Over the next few months I checked off a seemingly endless list of projects. After obtaining a stack of estimates from a mechanic that I paid to do a safety inspection, I set to work researching how to do all the mechanical necessities myself. I was amazed how much work I got done with some instruction from YouTube and a few basic tools that any self respecting twenty-something would own. Within a couple of weeks I had replaced all four shocks, the upper and lower radiator hoses, the valve cover gasket and the front wheel bearings. Those projects were easy though when compared with what had to come next.
It turns out that downsizing is really hard. The task of going through all of my possessions and deciding which would stay and which would go and then figuring out how to make the latter disappear was exhausting. I was able to sell some of the more valuable possessions but much of what I had to get rid of wasn't worth the time and effort it would have taken to find buyers, so into the free pile it went. Though I will say that the agony that I experienced at the outset of that project was rewarded by a profound sense of relief when it was all said and done. It was as if there had been a monkey on my back that I hadn't even noticed and it was finally gone.
Eventually the day came when it was time to cast off the last moorings to my foggy little community next to the sea, and take to the road. My house lease and my two weeks notice were up. I had reached a point in my education where I had to move on to a four year school to continue. I felt like I had to go right then, before something came up that would compel me to stay behind once and for all. So off I went in search of mountain bike trails and perhaps a new perspective.
At the time of this writing I have completed one leg of my journey. That story will come soon.
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