“The journey of fifty thousand miles starts with a good internet connection.”
I wish I could say I was disengaging from the “Matrix” on this pilgrimage in the west but the reality of the digital economy is a rather constant connection to the virtual world. And even though it was only really 3 short months, the experience somehow seem like a decade of experience. Whilst on this journey, I experienced so many peak moments in such a compressed time that that the decade time horizon seem plausible. There were numerous times that I pinch myself and was insanely grateful for being able to enjoy a ‘retirement’ lifestyle while still being at the top of my physical health. With the popularity of the lifestyle portrayed in social media, I have to admit that my journey has been pretty ‘ordinary’ as I find myself unable to ‘share’ the nitty gritty of such a lifestyle. Although I have visited some pretty amazing places, those destinations are just a by product of being on the road while working on my project. Which is to say, I didn’t feel the need to film all these amazing places and was pretty content with just being present and photographing here and there. The few times I found myself filming an experience felt a bit awkward in that I became too self conscious of the image that I was trying to shape. Anyway, I still wholeheartedly recommend a stint in the lifestyle if you can swing it but how the lifestyle is portrayed in social media should definitely be taken with a grain of salt. The power of the lifestyle really lies in disrupting our routines and showing what is possible when we are are not tethered down by the material burden. There are so many beautiful landscape in America and we are blessed with the ability to easily travel these places that it’s quite worth the inconveniences of life on the road.
