PART 1

The Individual Experience

Rise of the Digital Nomad

In a world that is increasingly restrictive on time, money, and freedom, digital nomadism is a last resort to escape suffocating societal constructs.

Digital nomadism presents an opportunity to break free, trading in daily life for a journey to satisfy the natural urge for unfettered human experience.

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Prelude to Chapter 1

Digital Nomad Nation: Rise of a Borderless Generation

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…more to experience…

Beneath the frost-covered pecan trees of Texas winter, I sat in the driver’s seat of my trusty old Toyota 4runner. I was figuring out where to go next in life as I stood at the end of one adventure and the start of another.

After living out my dream experience and traveling the world, I found myself back in Dallas, Texas. That year of wandering went beyond my dreams. It all started with a one-way ticket I bought on a whim to Bangkok, Thailand. I traveled the backpacker route in Southeast Asia. I hiked in the Himalayas, motorbiked the Ho Chi Minh Trail, and swam with penguins in the Galapagos. I checked off bucket list items I never knew I could do.

But, after that irreplaceable year of true adventure, I was back where it all started.

Parked along the street of my future neighborhood, I’d just finished reading an email with good news from my new employer.

The job interviews went extremely well, and I would be starting my new job the following week. Against all odds, I had landed back on my feet after my world tour, back to working as an advisory consultant to C-suite management.

My dirtbag travel lifestyle was as simple as hiking boots, faded jeans, and everything I owned in a backpack. In exchange for the freedom of the open road, Corporate America was offering a comfortable place back in modern society, with all of its structure and expectations. Back in the suit and tie. Back in the “9 to 5.” Back in the line of a steady paycheck…and the pound of flesh it demands.

I was lucky. Most backpackers who opt for a year of wandering generally return home to plenty of challenges. Settling into the routines of “the real world” as a changed person in a world that became unfamiliar sometime during their travels proves to be an adventure of its own. But, I’d quickly and easily found a place to return to in society.

Yet, as I sat in my car reading the offer letter and employment agreement to sign, still somewhat smelling of rural Latin America, I didn’t feel lucky.

At a moment when life felt more certain and planned than it had in over a year, every fiber of my being aligned with one single feeling: I wasn’t done yet.

The thought rang in my mind louder than the passing cars, their honks, and the planes flying overhead. I longed to be in a different place. The next place I wanted to be.

One year prior, before my travels, I sat in a comforting taco shop in Dallas’ hipster neighborhood of Deep Ellum after being laid off from my previous job. I sat, letting the new situation of unemployment and uncertainty of “what next” settle in my mind, confused about what my next steps in life should be.

Suddenly, I felt a dream-crushing weight on my shoulders as I reflected on the job I’d lost and, much worse, how unfulfilling the work was. The prospect of finding the same soul-numbing work and struggling to play the societal game again seemed unbearable at the moment. The workdays from 7:00 in the morning to 7:00 in the evening, followed by nighttime emails and more work from home. All for a paycheck that bought a life I had neither the time nor the energy to enjoy as I limped into each weekend, dying for a breath of fresh air.

I could aim for a job with less stress and more personal time. But, the smaller paycheck that comes with such a trade would put me in the same place as many people my age. I’d be stuck working as a cog in a system without the spare change to buy a decent quality of life in a carefree way. That bottle of wine, that nice dinner out, and that flight with sufficient time off to explore a new, exotic country for a couple of weeks would be out of reach.

Then, I realized I already had the kind of freedom I had been craving for years.

In the uncertainty of the moment, I finally had freedom from an unfulfilling job. I had freedom from the high cost of living in the city, to which the job chained me. I had the freedom to seek out whatever experience I wanted.

At that moment, I felt a nearly audible “snap.” A breaking point.

I couldn’t willingly stay under the thumb of corporate America again without living out my desire for “more” one last time. Moreover, I didn’t have to stay.

My cage door had broken open; I just needed to fly

I felt intense relief as I deduced that if I didn’t know what I wanted to do next ‘here,’ then I should follow whatever I wanted to do somewhere else. Anywhere else.

At that moment, I felt like I’d already flown away as if my travels had already begun and I was merely planning my next destination. Or perhaps I was answering the call to my next destination.

I let everything disappear as the world became eerily quiet. All I could hear was a playful invitation to go, to step into the unknown, to find the hidden experiences in life I never knew I needed.

Minutes later, I enjoyed the last sip of the most delicious margarita I’d ever tasted, senses clearly heightened by the sudden awareness of freedom. I opened my phone, pulled out my credit card, and bought a one-way flight to Bangkok. I made a promise to allow myself to stumble, wander, and embrace the unknown for the next 12 months. Over that next year, I would follow that longtime dream of traveling around the world untethered, following the open-ended adventures fate would bring.

As I journeyed, life and the experience of “being in the foreign” became more surreal and enriching than I could have ever hoped for. The tastes. The sights. The smells. The smiles. Every step of my meandering path was enlivening to the point of intoxication.

Learning what sushi truly is from a “mom & pop shop” tucked in a far corner of Japan. Feeling the impossibly grand magnificence of the pyramids in a way no picture can capture by standing next to them alone. Volunteering to help the less fortunate, only to realize the entitlement buried in that phrase. Then, in turn, instead of being educated on how to embrace life genuinely. These were all opportunities in the human experience that I never knew I needed, but they changed my life nonetheless.

But those adventures were behind me. Merely beautiful memories at this point.

As I sat in my car, these memories echoed with the tinge of foreshadowing possibilities, adventures not yet lived.

Though, at the moment, these possibilities were mere bullet points remaining in the “travel to-do list” of my mind. Each opportunity was tugging at my heartstrings enough that a simple job offer couldn’t compare to the wealth waiting in the unknown of travel.

I knew that once I walked back into “the real world,” those potential stories would go unwritten. Abandoned. Forgotten. That realization hit heavily, along with a nearly indecipherable cluster of feelings. Fear of staying and missing the human experience. Fear of being trapped. Buzzing excitement for the possibilities that remained for me if I chose to pursue them.

My adventure wasn’t done yet. There was so much more that I needed to experience.

As when I’d sat in that taco shop a year prior, the dust of logic settled. The best use of life at that moment wasn’t to stay but to go. Something in me needed to continue pursuing what life had to offer in the unknowns abroad. One more time.

As the world quieted once again, I heard the invitation once again to return to the adventure.

Yes, I’d returned home happy. But I returned home changed by the journey.

With my perspective changed, the potential new experience ahead promised to be different from what I’d been gifted before.

The longer I settled into that quiet, the less I felt any inkling to stay, and the allure to just “go” felt increasingly stronger.

The richest path was in leaving. In roaming.

Any experience that I left unfinished would likely be left unexperienced for life. That realization was too heartbreaking to tolerate.

I had no idea where home was. But I was certain that the open road was calling in a way I couldn’t ignore. For now, the open road was more “home” than any single place on the planet.

As a calm peace settled over me, I opened that email for the job offer and replied with the only truth I could muster.

“Thank you, but I’m sorry I won’t be able to take the job. I have some things unfinished that I need to complete before returning home.”

Then, I did the only thing that made sense. I booked a one-way flight to Lisbon, Portugal. This city had been on my list for years as a hidden gem in a corner of Europe. I’d heard tales of long-term travelers visiting more frequently to rest, to recharge, and to gather together between travels.

I had no idea exactly where this new path would lead, but I knew it would take me deeper into the human experience. That was the only place I needed to go.

It wouldn’t be easy, and it would be filled with difficulty and unknowns – as all adventures should be. But I had to go. Something inside me needed to go and answer the call of that something out in the world. Something was drawing my soul onto the greatest personal and physical journey I’ve ever embarked on.

My adventure wasn’t finished yet.