Guidebook to Anywhere

impractical notes on traveling forever

An introduction to a book I haven’t written.

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Traveling forever isn't about seeing famous sites, discovering amazing Airbnbs, developing the perfect packing list, or working remotely from a sunny coast.

It’s not about points, miles, Instagram, bucket lists, or how many countries you’ve visited. That’s all bullshit.

If you want to travel forever, you have a problem.

You do not fit into normal society. You cannot dwell.

You’ve tried living in one place. You’ve tried regular jobs. You’ve tried standard relationships. They’re nice for a while. They have their benefits. But compared to what you’ve seen, heard, touched, tasted, thought, and felt during your life in motion, normality is an early grave.

Many people need a full-time job to feel useful. You don’t.

Many people feel socially adrift while traveling. You don’t.

Many people want a standard romantic partner. You may, but you’re also content to venture forth alone.

Many people wait until retirement to fulfill their travel dreams. You find this unimaginable.

You relish the state of mind that travel breeds: openness, joy, optimism, deep noticing, deep reflection. Travel improves and elevates you. Rootedness chains you to the dirt.

For you, travel is about relationships: to people, places, seasons, languages, weather, cultures. To stay in one place means ignoring so many important relations. So you move.

Among your friends, you are the one who continued traveling after others stopped. You’re the one sleeping on their couches and guest beds. They no longer ask when you’ll settle down, only when they’ll see you next.

To a culture that glorifies travel, your life appears glamorous. But it is not glamorous. It is just your life.

This is a guidebook for those who don’t need another guidebook. You’ll find no advice about where to go, what to bring, or how to get around.

Rather, this is a guide to the interior journey of travel-as-life. To building a life of purposeful migration that is socially rich, emotionally sustainable, financially viable, and free from self-doubt. To traveling for years upon years, until no place is foreign, and everywhere is your home.