As the day of departure on my nomadic life approaches, I often find myself reflecting on the journey that brought me here.
In 2018 I evicted myself from my comfort zone and spent a year teaching English in China (more about that here). I returned from that trip with more energy, more vibrancy, more passion for life and curiosity and drive than I'd ever experienced - and everyone around me noticed.
I got back at the very end of 2019. Everyone remembers what happened the following spring.
I spent a year and half or so, from 2020 to 2022, assessing who that man was that returned from China, what happened to him, and how to get him back. It's the best me I've ever been, and I wasn't giving up on that. My therapist approached it as a question: What would it take to live in alignment with your true self? Exploring that question lead me to identify that my life and my self are at their best when they're authentic to two values: Interesting and Dynamic.
Interesting means that I am doing things that are new, novel, or just engaging to me. Typically, that interest will extend to others as well. Be it the jukebox musical I wrote and workshopped during university, the one-act play I wrote and directed after university, becoming a truck driver, teaching English abroad, or the handful of creative things that have yet to manifest, I am at my best when I'm not doing the same thing over and over.
Dynamic means that I am always changing, always growing, always moving. This doesn't necessarily have to be literal, but it does imply a kind of momentum. It explains why I'm often changing jobs, struggling to stay engaged in the same work for months or years, and why I hop around in my hobbies like a coked-up rabbit.
Therapy also lead me to acknowledge my nomadic core. From observing my wandering tendencies as a child (my parents have STORIES) to recognizing my frequent relocations and redirections as an adult, it's pretty clear that I'm just not really meant to put down roots. If anything, I get a tiny anxiety spike when someone boasts about having the same job for 20 years, living in the same town, etc.
So. All this brings us, dear reader, to April of 2025, or 4/25 as it's abbreviated above.
The Punjabi script you see is roughly transliterated "tu jeet veerey," meaning "Win, brave one" (as translated by the band Bloodywood in "Jee Veerey"). I got that inked back in 2021 or so, a statement of purpose and declaration of intent - my depression, my anxiety, my bipolar are all challenges, and I will be victorious. Today I inked the next part of this piece, which will be several years in the making: the first of many flags signifying accomplishments, victories, and milestones all representing "One more flag in the ground" as I win more and more against the things weighing me down and holding me back from inside. Future flags will be added with future dates, with some possibilities being publishing a book, reaching a given follower count on YouTube, getting married, being invited to teach a pole dance class...whatever else may come that feels like a win will be commemorated with a new flag and a date. A living chronicle and testament to me as champion.
I depart Colorado on April 25th (conveniently lining up the day and the year for the date above, though that wasn't the original plan). My challenge to myself was to see how far around the world I can get without flying; so I'll take trains to Miami, a transatlantic cruise to Spain, trains across Europe with a stop in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, across Turkey, through Georgia, a ferry across the Caspian Sea, and trains across Kazakhstan where that challenge ends. Thanks, Russia, for making that so much shorter and more complicated than it had to be. From there...I don't know. India, Nepal, Kenya, Mongolia, Thailand, the Phillipines, South Africa, Norway, Iceland are all interest points for one reason or another, but there's no plan in place yet for what's next...nor any plan to come back to the US except for a Christmas now and then. The trip above will take anywhere from 6-14 months, I'd guess, with the maximum being about 19 months if I stay to the max duration in each place along the way. Perhaps completing it will be the next flag in the ground. Perhaps by the time I get through all that, given my courage, durability, and adventurous spirit (or so everyone tells me), it'll seem like just another day. Future Luke will decide what that all looks like.
For now, I'm content to be finally stepping out in this life I've spent 3 years chasing, building, preparing for...and finally, driving a stick into the dirt and claiming as one more flag in the ground.
