Scruffy Idealist
New member
Hi, I've been looking for a resource like this for quite awhile. About a week ago I tried to start a blog about my ideas, and this is the only thing I've really written for it so far. If you read it you'll get to know me pretty well.
For the past few years, I've had a strange feeling that there was something wrong with the way our culture programs us to live--spending most of our adult lives doing a job we hate just so we can pay off the things none of us could afford to buy in the first place. In college I became extremely depressed because I thought that this was what was ahead of me. Also in college, I became very interested in ecology and environmental activism. I hadn't yet realized that the discontent I felt with my life path was related to the ecological issues on our planet.
This past summer, I read Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. Now, I know that most people who read Ishmael don't walk away and drastically change their lifestyles, but I honestly felt trapped in the culture in which I lived, and the ideas presented in Ishmael empowered me to find a different path. There was nothing wrong with me not wanting to spend my life slaving away for the American Dream. I was a healthy mind living in an unhealthy society.
But how could I go about breaking away? Hermitism never appealed to me because I am a hopeless extrovert, and I thrive when I am part of a community. I have neither the will nor the finances to start my own lonely homestead. I want to live with others who share my values. Where could I find these people?
By chance, one day I stumbled upon this vague article from Daily Mail. My heart pounded and hope swelled in my chest. But where could I find these people? A few desperate Google searches later, I stumbled upon this website.
Right now I'm temporarily living with my family in Bloomington, Indiana---working to save up some money. I was planning on going WWOOFing out in Colorado this summer. I was thinking that WWOOFing and working odd jobs in between would be a good way to support a lifestyle that would somewhat fit the one I was after, but I really want to find a permanent band of other misfits to live with. I don't want to hop around by myself my whole life. I'm a vagabond but not a lone wolf. I need to run with a pack.
Which brings me to my other point: I have a dog. She is a one-year-old coonhound and is just as adventurous as I am. In order for her to feel happy, she needs lots of open space where she can run around unleashed. She is very loving and friendly but she needs to feel free or else she will get stressed. Urban environments are too stimulating for her sensitive nose. A lot of WWOOFing farms accept dogs, so that's why it was such a good option for me. But honestly, I would much prefer to join up with another group of vagabonds that is much more experienced than me in this lifestyle. So if anything I say rings true to you, PRETTY PLEASE HIT ME UP.
I'm going to the Piedmont Earthskills Gathering this April in North Carolina doing a work-trade program. I'll be leaving my puppydog behind for the week when I go. Maybe I'll meet some other people there, I don't know.
Anyway, I'm pretty new to this website, so I will absolutely poke around some more and do my own initiating, but I figured I would go ahead and post this detailed account of what I'm looking for just in case someone else reaches out first.
For the past few years, I've had a strange feeling that there was something wrong with the way our culture programs us to live--spending most of our adult lives doing a job we hate just so we can pay off the things none of us could afford to buy in the first place. In college I became extremely depressed because I thought that this was what was ahead of me. Also in college, I became very interested in ecology and environmental activism. I hadn't yet realized that the discontent I felt with my life path was related to the ecological issues on our planet.
This past summer, I read Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. Now, I know that most people who read Ishmael don't walk away and drastically change their lifestyles, but I honestly felt trapped in the culture in which I lived, and the ideas presented in Ishmael empowered me to find a different path. There was nothing wrong with me not wanting to spend my life slaving away for the American Dream. I was a healthy mind living in an unhealthy society.
But how could I go about breaking away? Hermitism never appealed to me because I am a hopeless extrovert, and I thrive when I am part of a community. I have neither the will nor the finances to start my own lonely homestead. I want to live with others who share my values. Where could I find these people?
By chance, one day I stumbled upon this vague article from Daily Mail. My heart pounded and hope swelled in my chest. But where could I find these people? A few desperate Google searches later, I stumbled upon this website.
Right now I'm temporarily living with my family in Bloomington, Indiana---working to save up some money. I was planning on going WWOOFing out in Colorado this summer. I was thinking that WWOOFing and working odd jobs in between would be a good way to support a lifestyle that would somewhat fit the one I was after, but I really want to find a permanent band of other misfits to live with. I don't want to hop around by myself my whole life. I'm a vagabond but not a lone wolf. I need to run with a pack.
Which brings me to my other point: I have a dog. She is a one-year-old coonhound and is just as adventurous as I am. In order for her to feel happy, she needs lots of open space where she can run around unleashed. She is very loving and friendly but she needs to feel free or else she will get stressed. Urban environments are too stimulating for her sensitive nose. A lot of WWOOFing farms accept dogs, so that's why it was such a good option for me. But honestly, I would much prefer to join up with another group of vagabonds that is much more experienced than me in this lifestyle. So if anything I say rings true to you, PRETTY PLEASE HIT ME UP.
I'm going to the Piedmont Earthskills Gathering this April in North Carolina doing a work-trade program. I'll be leaving my puppydog behind for the week when I go. Maybe I'll meet some other people there, I don't know.
Anyway, I'm pretty new to this website, so I will absolutely poke around some more and do my own initiating, but I figured I would go ahead and post this detailed account of what I'm looking for just in case someone else reaches out first.
