It’s official- I quit my job, rented out my house and left Lawrence, KS for some adventure the end of September 2018. It took me 3 months of preparation to get to the point I felt OK leaving- I got a second job bartending, rarely saw my friends, worked my ass off getting projects done at my house and generally put the horse blinders on to an extreme degree. By the time I left Lawrence, I was exhausted. This is nothing new. This is my pattern. Establish a goal. Work to extreme to accomplish it. Exhaust myself in the process. Rinse, repeat.

Now that I’m unemployed with oodles of time of my hands, I’m going to focus on broader goals that I can take my time with. Hopefully I won’t exhaust myself. Hopefully I’ll get to a point where I can live life in the slow-ish lane (literally and metaphorically) for a while. The plan: explore the American West & beyond in my (sometimes) trusty Honda CRV, writing, taking photos and following my curiosity the whole damn way. My house is leased until the end of March 2019, so I have 6 months to do this. I have no idea how its going to go, how I am going to cope with uncertainty, ample time and unemployment.

If I get to the point of panic (its inevitable, I fear, knowing myself as well as I do), I will remind myself that my ONLY jobs are to look at the world, observe, explore and follow my curiosity. I will get off the main interstates and explore the road less-traveled. As William Least Heat-Moon says, “Life doesn’t happen along interstates. It’s the law.” I will sleep in my car if need be. I will camp. I will take everything one day at a time. I will force myself out of my introvert shell and engage with the world in a way that makes me wholly uncomfortable. That’s the point though, isn’t it? To force change and growth and see some beautiful shit along the way? Yes. Yes. That’s the point. Let’s see what happens.