Moving, Again

Drifter: a person who is continually moving from place to place without any fixed home or job.

Yup that pretty much describes me. For the past two years I've been bouncing around the country from job to job seizing opportunities, discovering my passions and just in general having a great time. While it is a fun way to live, it's not without it's drawbacks. My life is in constant flux. To come and go with the changing of the seasons is tough and can often be stressful.

When I first started to do the seasonal employment gigs I had two weeks to pack up everything I would need until September in May. I then put this into my two backpacks and left to go on a cross country road trip, leaving my car in North Dakota and flying from Fargo to Palm Springs. I made a few mistakes. The first being that I packed a little too much of the wrong stuff and not enough of the right stuff. I also didn't pack any 'going out' clothes. I then went home with too much stuff and left for my next job missing things that I might have liked. I've learned a lot since thing, knowing there are things that I really like regardless of where I'm going, for instance, a nice shirt or two and a pair of 'town shoes', jeans are another thing I feel more human with. Also I've learned to pack a towel and pajamas. I've forgotten to pack a towel a few places I've lived and soon realized it is an essential item, and pjs are just nice to have. If I can get it into my backpack, it can go. Otherwise, I need to rethink the amount of stuff I'm carting around.

Another thing that I've realized since moving around a lot is planning. Traveling takes time. I've stopped being stressed about who's going to pick me up and how to get somewhere. I can get pretty much anywhere I need to go now. As long as I get close enough I should be able to take a cab or public transport to get from point A to point B. Prime example: I didn't know who was going to pick me up at the ferry dock until the ship was docking. Most of the time things work out, when they don't I feel that I'm pretty resourceful.

Going back and forth with work/ travel has made me perfectly fine with changing jobs across the country, such as going from Alaska to New Hampshire. Before I used to get stressed and imagine my life in upheaval. But I think that staying in one place now would stress me out more than moving around.