Riches to rags, and happier for it
In 2016 I quit my job, booked a 1-way ticket to Ireland, and spent the following 6 months travelling through a combination of English-tutoring homestays, WWOOFing, house & petsitting, hostelling, and staying with people I met along the way. One of those people ended up becoming my husband, and when we met, we hardly spoke each others’ languages.
While I was travelling, I did some freelance writing & communications work to keep some funds coming in, but mostly all of my travels were done on savings. I’d been lucky enough to have a nice paycheck in my first few years of post-college work (plus the security of working for a government agency), but more important than the fact that I’d saved money was the fact that while travelling, I learned what was really important, and that’s what I used my time and money on. I was making a tiny fraction of my previous paychecks, but I’d also eliminated the majority of my expenses. I did this by lending my car to a family member (thereby transferring the car insurance payment to him as well) and packing my entire apartment into boxes (shout-out to my sis who allowed her attic to become storage space!). Outside of this, my main expenses were food, clothing, and entertainment, and as I learned while travelling, I had been seriously overcomplicating those things for years.
So I went from making a fat salary and working a comfortable office job to hitchhiking around with my entire world packed into a backpack, yet I felt richer than ever before in my life. The thing is that because I’d had so much money at my disposal, I’d expanded my spending to match it. I blew money on eating out at subpar chain restaurants. I’d take frequent shopping trips to fill my closet and the rest of my apartment with things I didn’t need. I bought all sorts of fancy food prep stuff to support my high-maintenance diet (my cupboards were brimming with supplements and exotic health foods that I was convinced were essential to my health). But ironically, it was once I walked away from all of it that I finally found the happiness I’d been so aimlessly seeking.
I realized that I was happier sitting around a campfire listening to friends play music than forking out cash to go sit in a cinema and not talk for 2 hours. I realized I was happier waking up and throwing on that same cozy, worn-in sweater that I wore a few days ago, rather than agonizing over an endless selection of clothes. I realized I was happier enjoying simple street food or cooking and enjoying a meal with friends rather than obsessing over macronutrients and depriving myself of the flavors I really craved. In almost every area of my life, I found that I’d been holding myself back from true happiness.
And ultimately that realization — that exposure to a completely different lifestyle — led me to a decision to dig up my poor pot-bound roots and replant myself in new soil. I decided to move to France, and that’s where I now live with my aforementioned other half.
Even now, well past my vagabonding adventure, I find that it’s the simplest things that bring me the most joy. In fact, we’re both excited for our upcoming move (to Paris!) so we can get rid of stuff in the process. We keep things pretty simple around here anyway (just ask my old-school coffee grinder found at a local thrift shop), but both of us just feel our best when we live and travel light.
The title of this post might be a bit misleading since we’re by no means living in poverty. But even if I was, I’m thoroughly convinced I could still find greater happiness than I ever could have found before. Being happy isn’t about reaching a summit of desire, but about looking around and enjoying the view from where you are. For me, thanks to getting rid of some major obstructions, it’s clear skies as far as the eye can see.
