how many of you are out here by choice

[Grubblin]

In a sense you are right. It's all by choice but choice is very subjective and entirely dependent on the individual situation. I've already read a post on this site from several years ago about choosing to hop trains. It became very argumentative so I'm not going to go there bc it's just not that important to me to be right. I will say that when you have a choice between a truly horrible situation and living on the road to try something you've never done before it's not much of a choice. Horrible situations come in all shapes and sizes. Many, if not most, times that situation has nothing to do with the law or being a fugitive. Sometimes the person within the situation is at least partly, if not wholly, responsible for the situation, sometimes that person has nothing to do with the circumstances that they find themselves in.

I won't go into my own situation mainly because people want to hear it even less than I want to share it. I will say that I began to think about what I would do if I had all the money I ever wanted or needed for the rest of my life. I came up with a few things. I would read and write, even more extensively than did back then. I would travel, almost constantly. I would hike and experience all of the wild that I possibly could. While I was reevaluating life and what I wanted out of it I began to see that I really didn't need all the money that I ever wanted or needed to do these things. I could do all of these things as a low dough operation. As an added bonus I could help the people that I met along the way when I could, however I could. It's much more difficult to travel this way but it's worth every ounce of effort so far - to me at least.

So you're right, it was a choice but it wasn't much of a choice which is why I said the choice chose me. I've learned some amazing things and changed in some amazing ways since I've started and I can't wait to see what's next. I don't know what's next but I know what's not next. What's not next is some 9 to 5 (for more than a few weeks or months at a time) that I hate to make money to buy things that I really don't need in order to live the type of life that makes me happy, that's not next. I'm already happier than I've ever been and I'll continue to be out there, somewhere, until it no longer makes me happy - then I'll do something else.

Just my thoughts.

 

[roguetrader]

well @Grubblin it's great that adopting a travelling lifestyle has opened the world up to you, fulfilling your dreams so to speak - for a lot of people 'travelling' becomes just as much of a trap as the straight world ; instead of putting 8 hours a day in working to pay for cars / houses / debts a lot of so called travellers put 8 hours a day in begging to pay for their multiple addictions ! I've also noticed both ends of the scale claim they are there by choice.... I agree totally that the best things in life are free or cheap.....

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[Grubblin]

well @Grubblin it's great that adopting a travelling lifestyle has opened the world up to you, fulfilling your dreams so to speak - for a lot of people 'travelling' becomes just as much of a trap as the straight world ; instead of putting 8 hours a day in working to pay for cars / houses / debts a lot of so called travellers put 8 hours a day in begging to pay for their multiple addictions ! I've also noticed both ends of the scale claim they are there by choice.... I agree totally that the best things in life are free or cheap.....

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I agree completely. I've seen the same thing and I always feel badly that their life has gone down that road for reasons that I'm careful not to judge - society does enough of that so I won't participate in judging. I've always stayed away from those addictions and been grateful that my life has never led there, while being vigilant that it doesn't. I believe that most everyone has at least a little good in them and that most people are decent when given a chance.

 

[Grubblin]

Just to be clear @roguetrader. I'm not trying to say that you're judging those people for flying signs to feed multiple addictions. It's just my philosophy that I never know what what type of horrible shit has happened to people in their life to make them do what they feel they need to do in order to get through the day. Due to that fact, I try not to judge anyone for anything, even addiction, until they "show" me who they really are. That goes for all people, normals, travelers, etc. That being said, as soon as I know they're on heavy drugs I choose not to be around them. That's just something that I've always done and I view it more as a self preservation factor and a way to keep my ass clean and out of trouble than a judgement. Whatever they want to do is fine with me as long as it doesn't affect me.

My last post could have been worded more clearly which is the reason for this one.

 

[ped]

Passion!!! The smell of the sweet sage and the ocean and mountain laurel on a hazy, warm Fall day on Mt Tamalpais: the golden hills surrounding and white fluffy cotton seeds floating in the twilight. Rain in the air and wild orange blossoms and rose fragrance in the alleyways of Portland, San Fran, and Santa Barbara. The smell of POWER.

Now, consider the alternative: living in a shoddy 20 year old house in Colorado Springs or San Antonio: waking up at 630 AM to go to a 8 hour job that pays you 5 dollars above minimum wage. Starbucks, or the hotel or restaurant or retail place you work at will NOT allow OT and they wont offer bennies so they keep you at 25-35 hours a week, guaranteeing you will NEVER make more than 1300/month.
Your car smells like raw gasoline and dog vomit. Traffic stresses you out and cops have put you within 6 points of your maximum, so you're always 1 ticket away from losing your license. Your rent is 25% of your monthly income, gas 20%, food and bills 20%, and your cheap Rent To Own TV and furniture take another 25%. Which means you have roughly 150 in discretionary income each month. THAT is what you are working for: 150 a month in discretionary income.

Your neighbors have shitty taste in music and play Sublime and Nickelback on the local classic rock station at top volume.

Maybe in 5, or 10, or 20 years, you will have found a decent career, a better house in a better neighborhood, and a newer car, and will make 40,000 per year.

Hhahahahhahah You choose.

great post!

That's a whole other thing. Rent is so high and wages so low and only getting worse. getting real hard to do it even if you want to.

 

[Deleted member 2626]

As a post I just made I'm fence riding. Looks like it'll be less choice but yet still a little control. I still have living family and friends I can stay and short term live with need be. but, I really can't as others say bring myself to become a full time slave or chess pawn and never will. I'd rather be homeless squatting in the woods and cold and hungry than a miserable prick chasing a dollar and wanting to impress people who don't give a shit about me.

 

[roguetrader]

@Grubblin - I think your reasoning is pretty clear and well thought out - my post was made to simply highlight the irony of rejecting conventional work for an alternative form of slavery revolving around getting money for drugs.... and I definitely not judgemental coz I got issues with drugs and alcohol myself, which is why I feel qualified to make these observations ! direct experience.....

with regard to the original thread I've definitely rejected conventional living due to my anarchist / punk ideology rather than being forced out - I'm middle class, educated etc - could of had the mainstream life no problem but i'm what the authorities here refer to as 'intentionally homeless' - living in vehicles, precariously broke, but proud to be living by my rules with as little kiss-ass / compromise as possible - the thought of living life as a straight truly gives me the horrors - the way life is mapped out from birth to death, to wear what everyone else wears, to think what everyone else thinks with not one original thought EVER troubling that poor under-used brain......

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[The Albino Buffalo]

I subscribe to a stupid abstract moral destinction between the two, so I'll keep my $0.02 to myself

I'll spange you for those 2 cents and use it for beer.

 

[Mankini]

great post!

That's a whole other thing. Rent is so high and wages so low and only getting worse. getting real hard to do it even if you want to.

The rentier class of developers, speculators, financiers, surveyors, and realtors have created an artificial scenario: a so-called ''Sellers' Market''. This means that simply being housed has been commodified. Break it, Smash it, Punish them, take your basic human right-which is to be safe, comfortable, and healthy.

Society does not have a choice whether people shall be housed or not. That is not their choice to make. Only we have that prerogative.

Yes, as #Roguetrader said. I, and many of us, could, or could have, snatch(ed) at Rat Race goals like suburban 10,000 sq.ft. ranch style homes; platinum credit cards; MBA's at pretentious universities; pretentious poetry readings and even more pretentious cocktail parties; exorbitantly priced minivans with doodads for the kids to play with; dry-clean only suits that cost more than their creators in Bangladesh or San Salvador will make in their entire lives; etc etc

 

[Fred R]

I could live in my moms house tomorrow. I could prop my feet up on the couch and stair at the tv in the basement with a steady temperature regulated at 76'. Or I could be looking at flights to Berlin with no plan for what to do when I leave the airport. I can't keep a job for more than a month and I'd probably end up in jail. It's a real choice for me.

 

[LeoRenegade]

I have to say choice. My trade is electrician but I have no desire to be told what to do and how and when to do it. I'd rather be broke and home free. I've never been able to hold a job more than a couple months because eventually I wake up and say "fuck this, not going in today" then I wake up tomorrow with the same thought, then finally ill realize I'm not going back... And I've never regretted it. I've honestly tried to be the 9-5 working stiff that can go home and buy whatever I want. But I realize those wants get me nothing except more wants, that adds up quick. Then all the sudden I can't buy whatever I want because my money is always tied up before I get it. FUCK that vicious circle. On another note, those people, the rat racers, need to exist so that we can. The balance of the universe is the only truth a can adhere to. With one side comes the other, without one the other isn't... Love

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[ped]

The inability to be a job has come up several times now. I wonder how common it is? It makes me feel really good to know a bunch of people are like me. Lol

 

[LeoRenegade]

Has to be pretty common... I've known quite a bit of people that can't hold a job from a lack of fucks to give.

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[Fred R]

Has to be pretty common... I've known quite a bit of people that can't hold a job from a lack of fucks to give.

Lack of fucks is just as true as I'm simply crazy. And a burgeoning alcoholic.

 

[LeoRenegade]

Well.. Simply being crazy can lead to losing all of the fucks one once had to give... If one ever had any.

YarrrShibby

 

[Fred R]

The insane doesn't want to be sane. This alone drives him insane. Isn't that insane?

 

[Deleted member 2626]

yeah even a shitty job can be decently easy to get with no criminal background a hs graduate and a mannered interview. I show up on time for a month? then once funds rise I'm usually like alrite gonna call off tonight then that's the downward spiral to no show. I have put in my two weeks on a few because I respected the people and the job wasn't horrible.

 

[WanderLost Radical]

I don't know if you can call that being forced, or by choice, but i willingly hit the road to run away from dépression and addiction. (Nothing like being too broke to be addicted to quit, right?)

Been on the road for 14months since. I. Just about to re-integrate society and "normal life" and it terrifies me to not know how I'll react.

The only thing that drives me is to save up and go on with the epic worldwide adventure i'm planning!

 

[Vanholio]

i started out travelling by choice but am now so far off the map socially / politically / economically that even if I wanted to re-enter mainstream society it would be very difficult..... and goddammit I CANNOT STAND FUCKING STRAIGHT PEOPLE AND ALL THEIR FUCKING BULLSHIT !

I chose this life and have been at it 1.5 years or so. But already I can feel the slide into what roquetrader said. To even take on vanlife, I was already a bit outside. But now straight society is looking stupider and stupider. Current politics don't help.

 

[Renegade]

It was a choice even tho at the time i had other things i could have done.. now years on a lot of the doors to those old opportunities have slammed shut..?and i am now estranged from my family because of my lifestyle.. my mom is gone.. my childhood home is now destroyed..and my dad is disappointed in me as well as the rest of my family..plus i have no home to go back to..

Still even with all that being said i would not change a thing.. i love this lifestyle and i am down for life.. I have a street family now..and we take care of each other. Rougetrader is right.. as the months turn in to years the separation grows between normal people and me... i feel like a space alien around norms and i cant stand being in doors .. its too confining... people look at me like an oddity..i dont care tho..you cant take to the road with out sacrificing some things.... i was always very disillusioned with the system as a young kid.. because it fucked me .. and my distain grew from that point..i dont want a fake 9 to 5 life surrounded by fake people..

All that i have is wrapped up in today... my freedom, my life.. and my friends thats what's important to me.. all that i want is secured In this moment. I have no need to work my life away securing a nonexistent future..while at the same time setting aside whats reallty important.