Life Lessons Learned While Traveling

posted 22nd August 2010    Written by: Lindsey    CATEGORY: All Posts, Life Lesson, Lindsey, Season 3, Travel

The lessons I’ve learned, and the experiences I’ve had in places I’ve lived are absorbed into my soul. Rather than living to travel, I travel to live. I  had a “permanent” life in college until I had my first extended travel-living experience in Istanbul. There I defined my personal travel style: I prefer to integrate into a place, for a month or longer, to gain the full experience, and really just vibe with the culture.

For someone who lived in the same house until age 18, I have called quite a few places “home” in the last 6 years. Currently, I have a California driver’s license but I live at home in Michigan. Even I have a hard time explaining this!

Since each locale is a chapter in the humor-adventure-drama-saga that is my life, it’s only proper to tell my story in sequence.

South Haven, Michigan. How to Feel Disconnected.

I am a big dreamer from a small rural tourist town. A beautiful place, but at 17 it is my prison.

Ann Arbor, Michigan. How to Build a Resume While Bonging a Beer.

(It really is quite a skill. Especially when you have a shot of tequila in the other hand.)

I learn a lot in college, especially about the trajectory of my life towards a cubicle. The true value is in the friends I meet. My heart isn’t fully in the whole Engineering thing, but I am determined to prove myself, and also, to be done with the responsibility of school that has dominated my life thus far. I find hope in an internship, and discover Green Building and Sustainable Development are what I really care about out of this whole engineering game.

In this same summer, I compile my life list and realize I have a lot to do besides work.

Istanbul, Turkey. How to Use “Ditzy American Girl” as an Advantage.

You want a crazy experience? Travel alone. You may be ditzy, and you may be so white than a random Turkish person on the bus will look you straight in the face and say “YOU are one hundred percent American.” But you will still learn a lot of things. Do not take my advice if you are afraid of insane shenanigans, random people with guns busting in your hotel room, police officers stalking you, or figuring out how to get an abortion in the Middle East (NOT mine, FYI).

Life gets real when you really displace yourself. I get addicted to the adrenaline of displacement.

Big Sky, Montana. How to Not Be In School.

After graduation, I get a waitressing job at Big Sky Resort and an apartment with an old friend. I ski, snowboard, party, and finally catch up on all the sleep lost in the past four and half years of engineering school all-nighters. I am running from a job offer in my field: managing an oil rig, making insane amounts of money and probably dying in an explosion on April 20, 2010.

I think I made the right choice. I know I made the right choice.

Hawaii. How to Live Consciously.

While browsing the internet over the most amazing vegetarian biscuits and gravy in Big Sky, I found a plane ticket from San Francisco to Hawaii for a reasonable price. Since I had no clue what else I was going to do with myself after the snow stopped falling, and had told myself that in 2009 I was not allowed to think about engineering or jobs, I went to Hawaii to WWOOF.

I wanted to learn about yoga. And hang out in Hawaii. And eat some pineapples. What I got was so much more. It is not even possible to summarize Hawaii in a short space. Just know that when I went to Hawaii, I lived in a fog of disconnect between who I was and who I wanted to be. And by the time I landed on the mainland 5 months later, I was conscious.

Oklahoma. How to Be a Yogini.

I meet a boy in Hawaii and fall head over heels for his world experience, yogic nature and French-Canadian accent. So I bail on Hawaii, fly to his home in Montreal to begin a road trip without a destination.

End up in Oklahoma with his yoga friends, practicing Ashtanga yoga every day, eating a vegan, gluten-free, soy-free, peanut-free diet and living the healthiest life ever. Spent all remaining money on quinoa and vegetables. Went into credit card debt over health food. (I laugh hysterically – at myself! – when people say they’d like to eat healthier but simply ‘can’t afford it.’)

Plan to go to Montana to pick up Everything-I-Own (which was left behind when I left for Hawaii with a backpack) with intentions to sell it to temporarily finance my life. One crazy long drive later, find out that all my possessions evaporated when the person storing my boxes went to prison and her daughter turned the house into a meth lab. (Seriously, I could NOT make this shit up.)

Lake Tahoe, California. How to Be Independent.

End up here completely on accident. End up nearly marrying the boyfriend on a whim. Freak out, send him off to Canada with promises to follow soon. Question everything. Stay in Tahoe instead of moving to Canada.

Start thinking about how to live free for real. Snowboard every day. Meet amazing new friends. Start setting real goals that don’t involve boring engineering jobs ever, but making good things happen on my own terms. Consider staying for good in California. Settling down. Having a home. Starting a business.

Meet another boy. (Sigh… boys!) Make dinners. And plans.

But then I wake up in the middle of the night this May, realizing that home is anywhere and everywhere I want it to be. But also realizing, despite all the amazing friends I have and know, everyone in my Tahoe life at this point has only known me for 2 months. No one knows me. Freak out that South Haven is the only place where I have any semblance of home but I am completely resistant to going back. I love my freedom.

Recognize the resistance as something I need to be brave about and deal with. I have to love where I come from. I have to make peace with the only place I have ever left on bad terms. I can’t hold these negative emotions towards my home, or I will never be truly free. Also, I need to figure out how to not live in complete waitress poverty. (Mental stability wanes dealing with people who treat you like a slave.)

Decide to cancel life in Tahoe. Back out of living situations, life plans, shitty jobs, etc to come home to small town Michigan for the first time in 6 years.

South Haven, Michigan. How to Love What Matters.

Freak out. Question everything. Lie on the floor of my childhood bedroom crying in the agony that I’d left everything to move to a place where no one “gets it.” Break down when I have to do my grocery shopping in WalMart. Break down multiple times in WalMart because it represents everything I can’t stand about the rural midwest. Break down completely and emotionally drive away friends who are already physically distant.

Finally, completely, totally alone but with South Haven. Forced to face it. Embrace the place for what it is, and embrace how I fit into it with what I have become. Become “that girl on a skateboard” and “that girl with a camera” and start to jive with the fact that I am me, and I will always be, and this is good.

Suddenly, find friends in the strangest places. Get multiple opportunities that fit my missions in life – working with green initiatives online, entrepreneurship and sustainable community building. Blogging for Stratejoy. Blogging for myself.

Feel hope.

{photo credit : me :) }

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Comments (22)

22 Responses to “Life Lessons Learned While Traveling”

  • nikkiklecha Says:
    August 22nd, 2010 at 8:23 am

    Oh my God I am vibrating with chills right now because I GET IT. "Life gets real when you really displace yourself" – so true; it gets real and it all narrows down to the pinprick focus of NOW. High five to following your gut, even across the world, even when it takes you back home. You are amazing. xx

  • Renee Says:
    August 22nd, 2010 at 9:26 am

    Girl, YOU are a badass. I LOVE everything about this. You've truly gone out looking for yourself. Incredible.

  • Heather Rae Says:
    August 22nd, 2010 at 9:36 am

    So much of this resonates with me. I love it! Thank you for sharing. :)

  • erinmakesitwork Says:
    August 22nd, 2010 at 12:28 pm

    Be Proud! At only 24, I think you've learned more about yourself and what you want out of life than most people do in a lifetime. I seriously doubt that you will ever find yourself living in a fog for long, again.

  • Mandy Says:
    August 22nd, 2010 at 5:42 pm

    There were a few things you said that deeply resonated with me: "I can’t hold these negative emotions towards my home, or I will never be truly free.", "How To Love What Matters.", "Embrace the place for what it is.". I need to put these into action in my own life, and stop making excuses.

  • Alisha Says:
    August 22nd, 2010 at 8:19 pm

    This is so awesome!! So much truth, so many lessons learned.

  • emmajoan Says:
    August 23rd, 2010 at 8:35 am

    Ummm would it be appropriate if all I said was "holy shit" ?!!!

  • Marianne_A Says:
    August 23rd, 2010 at 9:32 am

    I like your bravery and will to diverge from what you studied in school. No matter how smart or capable you are of something, if your heart isn't in it then it's not going to work. So glad things are working out for you. I think the stuff you've gone through will benefit you in the long run – way to go!

  • cna training Says:
    August 23rd, 2010 at 10:21 am

    My cousin recommended this blog and she was totally right keep up the fantastic work!

  • Lindsey Sparks Says:
    August 23rd, 2010 at 12:08 pm

    I'm amazed you became a health nut in Oklahoma! How is that even possible? (As an Okie I can say that). :)
    Seriously though, it amazes me that you've lived so many places, especially going alone to Istanbul. I can't imagine doing that. This does make me want to sell my house and pack up and do something crazy, but I think for me, that would be running away from something instead of to something. I do want to live somewhere else eventually, but for right now that's not the right decision for me. I find it fascinating to read about others who have done this though.

  • Lindsey Says:
    August 23rd, 2010 at 2:52 pm

    Yeah, Oklahoma was the last place I thought I'd end up, but life is funny like that. There are so many amazing health food stores in Norman – I miss them!

  • Lindsey Says:
    August 23rd, 2010 at 2:53 pm

    Haha, riiiight?

  • Lindsey Says:
    August 23rd, 2010 at 2:54 pm

    Thanks for calling it bravery! Sometimes it feels like stubbornness. It's hard to get used to the idea of what I'm doing sometimes, but as long as I believe, it'll all work out well in the end.

  • Lindsey Says:
    August 23rd, 2010 at 2:54 pm

    Attitude is everything, girl. Rock it!

  • Lindsey Says:
    August 23rd, 2010 at 2:55 pm

    *High fives back*

  • Lindsey Says:
    August 23rd, 2010 at 2:57 pm

    aww shucks… thanks Erin :)

  • Lindsey Says:
    August 23rd, 2010 at 2:59 pm

    I feel this huge responsibility to understand "me" and that is hard work! It takes a badass, I guess ;)

  • Ali Says:
    August 24th, 2010 at 12:21 pm

    I am pretty much obsessed with this post.

    The end.

  • The Line Between Independence and Aloneness | Stratejoy | Conquer Your Quarterlife Crisis through Fresh Strategies for Real Joy Says:
    August 29th, 2010 at 8:04 am

    [...] my story of how I got back to Michigan this summer? There were several affairs of the heart, that moved me across this country, and each [...]

  • Molly_Hoyne Says:
    September 15th, 2010 at 4:56 pm

    How did I miss this post! I love seeing your life line down like this. And you know my parents live in Big Sky, right? I've totally worked at the resort a few times! Trouble that's for sure… The Black Bear? How funny- we'll have to discuss this later. ;) You've got a life full of adventures already, Miss Lindsay. Keep following that intuition, my dear. It WILL come together. (And ps. SOOO brave for going home and facing things you'd left.)

  • stratejoy season 3 – the end & the beginning Says:
    January 30th, 2011 at 10:15 am

    [...] Life Lessons Learned While Traveling [...]

  • Morty Says:
    July 6th, 2011 at 10:27 am

    Keep Your Spirit Alive

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