Boxes are getting checked off, ordered and packed. The end of the month becomes the beginning of a new future. Small things keep popping up unexpectedly. Mementos of long forgotten events that bring to mind past excursions into the uncharted waters of life. This is different though. This is more extreme. This is leaving the life I have known and seeking something New. I don’t know what the New is. All I know is it will be New.
New like the first time I held a tattoo machine. New like the first time we dropped anchor for lunch. New like the first time you hold your child in your arms. Endless possibilities begin with New. There is so much New out there. Some frighteningly New. I have heard from many of my friends that they couldn’t do this. There is too much unknown (i.e. New) underneath you. Big things that can eat you! I think I’ll stay on the boat to avoid that, thank you. I say there are things everywhere that will eat you. A job. Our bills. Your relationships. The foods we eat the and air we breathe. The life we live is one great cycle of consumption. One thing eating another. So why be worried about the things that will eat you. Stay. On. The boat.
Then there are thing to be concerned about such as how to afford this nomadic lifestyle. I know relying on tattooing to pay the bills along will suffice. There are already a few shops and spots to stop in and hang out at as we roam along the way. Hanging with those crews should make for some interesting conversations and killer tattoos! But being basically unknown wherever we are headed is full of uncertainties. The odd jobs to be picked up along the way should be just as varied as the horizons we will sail. All of this New is both exciting and daunting. Challenge accepted.
I spent the greater part of childhood moving often between family members and friends. I didn’t have a stable environment until I was 11 years old and even then it was unsteady. Children’s homes often have a constant wave of incoming and outgoing “clients”. As an adult I’ve continued that tradition, often as a necessity, but sometimes I had a choice. This time the choice choose me. When presented a different path from what I have always known and given the chance to explore parts of the world I never thought possible, it was a no-brainer. I choose a path of the unknown, wherever I may roam.
I hope to be able to look back on my words and adventures and mark the changes and growth I will undertake. So much had been to get me to this point. What lessons or skills will I develop? What perspectives will I expand or change? It’s like opening a map to a game that I didn’t know was open world. What lies beyond the next cove? I have every intention of finding out.
