I Traveled to See the World, But What I Found Was Something More

I took a leap that changed the way I thought about how to live forever.

The Writer at Plaza de España, Sevilla, Spain

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Quick Programming Note: Later today, I’m co-hosting a live stream about a variety of topics, including modern masculinity, with my friends Tom and Bill Kuegler. They’re the co-creators of the fantastic newsletter Letters With My Father.

Join us at 3 pm EST right here on Substack. As long as you’re subscribed to World of Nuance or Letters With My Father, you’ll get an email notification when we go live.

And, if you’re unable to join us, don’t worry. The video will be available on our archives.

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Like most people, I used to think that travel was about seeing the world. Over time, I’ve come to realize it represents something much deeper.

Back in the mid 2000s, I was just another college kid trying to figure out my future. I did, however, have a few big ideas about what I wanted to do with my life.

Around this time, I got hooked on travel television. Shows like Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern and No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain sparked my interest in seeing parts of the world beyond my own.

Bourdain’s approach, in particular, caught my attention. Here was a guy showing that there was more to travel than pricey, all-inclusive resorts and 7-day tours spent rushing from one attraction to the next.

Good conversation and good food (preferably home cooked). Bourdain taught me that these two features, paired with a genuine sense of curiosity, are the staples of a memorable trip.

“It seems that the more places I see and experience, the bigger I realize the world to be,” Bourdain once said. “The more I become aware of, the more I realize how relatively little I know of it, how many places I have still to go, how much more there is to learn.”

By my mid 20s, I was waist-deep in exciting (but exhausting) careers in sports media and later hospitality/entertainment. The idea of traveling around the world was something I still wanted to do. But for the time being, it was a dream I set to the side.

During this time, I came across the work of Tim Ferriss. These days, most people know him through his popular podcast, but back then he made his mark as the author of the best-selling book The 4-Hour Workweek.

It was a book that was ahead of its time, introducing me to ideas like lifestyle design and geoarbitrage that have since become commonplace in a post-COVID era of digital nomadism and remote work.

The 4-Hour Workweek was also my introduction to another author who influenced my thinking. Rolf Potts is a writer who, like Bourdain, showed me a different lens through which to see travel.

“Beyond travel, vagabonding is an outlook on life,” Potts wrote in his landmark book Vagabonding. “Vagabonding is about using the prosperity and possibility of the information age to increase your personal options instead of your personal possessions.”

Potts taught me that time is the most valuable asset we own. Unlike money, it’s a non-renewable resource, and when you control your time, travel doesn’t have to cost you a fortune.

You can book flights during less busy times of year.

You can volunteer your skills in exchange for lodging and food.

You can couchsurf with friends, family, or even complete strangers when it works best for them.

Most people on traditional life paths have fixed obligations, like 9-5 jobs, that their lives revolve around. Their calendars are fully booked, which makes travel only possible during limited windows of the year.

But when you have an open schedule? Anything is possible.

Like most people who want to pursue a goal, it took me a while before I set my travel dreams into motion. It wasn’t until three years after reading Potts and Ferriss’ work that I finally decided to take the leap.

On the surface, life was good. Working as a marketer for the premier Las Vegas hospitality company at the time meant unlimited access to an exclusive, VIP scene.

I went to Justin Bieber’s 21st birthday bash and rang in the new year with an ex-member of the Kardashian clan. I even had the club going up…on a Tuesday.

But I knew I wasn’t built long-term for a lifestyle that pulled me to party (almost) every single night. Plus, the company underwent massive changes, which included my boss leaving just nine months after she hired me.

So in January 2016, about a year and change after I moved to Las Vegas, I quit my job. A few weeks later, I hopped on a one-way flight to Stockholm, Sweden.

How long would I travel for? I wasn’t sure.

I knew I had enough money to get by for a while. But ultimately, my savings plus a combination of couchsurfing and volunteer work exchanges enabled me to travel for 7.5 months.

Almost immediately, I knew that the trip was going to be life-changing. I remember checking into my very first hostel and meeting one of my roommates.

“So what brings you to Sweden?” I remember asking him, a striking Australian man who could’ve easily passed as Henry Cavill’s long-lost brother.

“Well, I had a relationship fall apart last year,” he shared, just minutes into our conversation. “My ex-wife and I were together for several years, but only married for a few months before we broke up for good.

“So now I’m here, backpacking across Europe, trying to figure out what’s next,” he added.

I was floored. Never in my life had I witnessed someone open up so deeply and so soon.

But this openness became a common theme throughout this trip and my ensuing travels. My curiosity was often met with a level of willing vulnerability you just don’t get back in “normal life”.

That brings us to today.

I still travel, but not just to see new places. I travel to listen, to learn, and to understand.

The pace may be slower and the stays may be longer, but what motivates me still hasn’t changed:

• To have conversations that challenge what I think I know.

• To see the world (and my place in it) just a little differently.

At the core of it all is an enduring curiosity. A curiosity about this world and the people who live in it.

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