I have always admired Jack London for his elaborate illustrations of the wild, especially those about the Gold Rush when huskies are the prime movers of transportation. In the Call of the Wild, I’ll never forget how one domestic sled-dog left the comfortable confines of home to get back to his original habitat – the wild.
This is more or less like me, who is about to trade the comfort and seemingly secure paycheck for a digital nomad lifestyle.
Why? At first I thought it was a comfort – the consistent paycheck every fifteen days. I’ve always had this idea that life would be great after graduation. Especially if you finish college with flying colors (which I did), you’d have a better chance at getting a high-paying job. This means you’ll have a pay that’s more than enough to put food on the table, allowing you to save up for travel.
It seems to me that work is the golden key with which I can unlock my dreams of traveling the world. But little did I know that the very thing I’ve been excited about will confine me in an office to toil eight hours a day, five days a week with little or no time at all for vacations.
A couple of months after settled in my first work, reality hit me hard in the face that you don’t own your time as an employee.
Nothing can be more frustrating than seeing lovely pictures of travel destinations you direly want to visit, but you don’t have time and money to do so. That’s an absolute dream killer, if I may say, especially if you don’t have the patience to bid your time.
As a paid writer, I churned out words enticing readers to pack their bags and travel, but I myself failed to do so. I’ve spent the first five years of my working life reading and hitting the keys of a keyboard like crazy just to hit a target daily word count. It’s not how I wish to spend my time.
But as it turned out, five years of being an anonymous writer in the SEO world shaped my writing style without the trouble of putting my name on the spotlight YET to get subjected to the scrutiny and criticism of readers.
I was free to explore, learn and gain more understanding about the digital world. In short, I waited long enough to have a solid grasp of who and what I wanted to stand for as a writer before I finally allow myself to enjoy the glory of the by-line. The years of practice certainly pay off, and I’ve been very blessed to get paid to do what I love to do in the first place.
But the Call of the Wild grows ever louder.
I have been bitten by the travel bug a long time ago, and I’ve been badly bitten I can’t heal. The idea of becoming a digital nomad is an extremely attractive lifestyle, which by the way isn’t that impossible to achieve these days. With technology and the abundance of remote and home-based work opportunities, the wanderlust grows ever more urgent and compelling.
Overall, it’s really just a matter of time. One really just needs to take the big leap to stop crawling and learn to fly. I know I’m not the only person with this feeling. So feel free to leave a comment if you feel me.