Confessions of a Reluctant Minimalist and an Unbrave Girl
First, let me get one thing straight: I am no minimalist.
I like stuff… pretty stuff… preferably pretty stuff covered in sequins. The fact that I’ve decided to spend the current year traveling around Asia with only one carry-on bag as my luggage has been tough on me. The fact that not a single thing in that bag is festooned with sequins hurts me even more.
When I left my job and apartment in Japan six months ago, I was faced with the task of figuring out what to do with all my stuff. My teeny tiny, typical Japanese apartment, which usually would have housed a family of four, was housing, instead, approximately forty pairs of sandals and twenty-nine handbags… along with a collection of reference books I had never referred to, two pairs of hiking boots I had never hiked in, a sleeping bag I had unfurled once and two sets of free weights which were, indeed, living the free life (meaning they hadn’t been attached to my hands at any point in recent history).
I packed up the few things I owned that I had actually used on a regular basis or I deemed were of value (as they weren’t made of plastic and purchased at the one-hundred-yen store) and sent them off to join the other boxes of my possessions in my parent’s basement in New York State. Everything else was sold off, given away to friends, dropped off at charity shops or left on the doorsteps of my unsuspecting neighbors.
The one piece of luggage that I did bring with me was packed in the same manner I had planned my entire trip: in a willy-nilly fashion in the dead of night while fueled with red wine and chocolate.
You see, I had never planned to traipse around Asia at the ripe old age of thirty-four. Nope, the backpacking life was not for me, I told myself (and still tell myself… and that’s why my luggage has wheels and I’m prone to blowing my monthly budget on a weekend stay at a five-star hotel). Besides, I hadn’t saved up the money or made any plans do a big, year-long trip.
After quitting my job as an English teacher at a university in Kobe, I decided I’d take a little break before heading back to the States to find a job… a “real” job… one that would keep me in the lifestyle I had gotten used to in Japan. You know, one that allowed me to buy lots of stuff… and spend my evenings camped out on my couch, watching cable TV and dining on chocolate bars and red wine.
First, I found a two-month cat-sitting job through some friends in Northern Thailand. Then, I started to think about other ways I could travel while living rent-free. Pretty soon my two-month stint in Thailand became a year-long venture. I emailed friends and friends-of-friends who lived in the countries I was planning to visit to see if I could stay with them. I signed up for WWOOF and couch-surfing. I announced my plan to the world (or at least to the tiny world that reads my blog… and my parents) and the world didn’t once laugh back. (Okay, so my mom did laugh a lot when I told her I was going to volunteer on an organic farm… but, you know, some people just offer support in different ways.)
I’ve spent the last six months on the road. After my two months of cat-sitting, I spent another two months working on a rice farm in Southern Malaysia. One month, I helped build a boat (or at least, ummm, helped sand a boat) in Eastern Malaysia. And for the past month I’ve been traveling through Malaysia en route to Laos, my current location.
When people hear what I’ve been doing, they usually tell me that I’m brave.
Let me get another thing straight: I’m not brave.
I’m scared of many things: snakes, heights, hepatitis, motorbikes, crossing the road, large crowds, open water and ceiling fans. Almost everyday I invent a new way I might die. (On the rice farm, my pending death usually involved a python and lots of rice paddy mud. On the boat, I often imagined I’d fall overboard while in a sanding-induced trance). I worry constantly that I will end up destitute and be forced to hitch a ride back to North America on a pirate ship.
Sure, bravery would be nice. I’d love to be one of those people that can scuba dive or sky dive or even be able to stay in a room with a ceiling fan and not get the heebie-jeebies. But I’m not that person. Instead of relying on bravery, I rely on the support of my friends and family, my trust in perfect strangers and the blind hope that I will be able to survive this year no matter how many pythons and ceiling fans I encounter.
You see, bravery is much like sequins: it’s not necessarily required.
Unbravegirl is a writer, teacher, performer, photographer, eater, traveler and all-around scaredy cat. She’s spending this year traveling through Asia: one cat-sitting gig, volunteer assignment and odd job at a time. You can learn more about her at http://unbravegirl.com/
{ 11 comments }
This was well done. Really enjoyed….my first thought while reading was….”Wow! She’s really brave.” This made sense to me and reminded me a bit of me. I wish the link to Unbravegirl blog worked, though. Can it be corrected if the link is wrong?
Julie,
Thanks for the comment & glad you enjoyed it. My website is: http://www.unbravegirl.com
One more thing, if that link doesn’t work (unfortunately, that’s sometimes the case) try this nice drawn out long one:
http://web.me.com/unbravegirl/Unbravegirl/Welcome.html
It’s been an honor to be involved in this project!
Okay, so I guess that was TWO more things.
Congrats on the first guest post. I’m thinking of introducing a new column about travellers working abroad and having your career here all on one page makes it easy to link to. I can’t promise you’ll be in every issue of this column though and I’m putting my foot down on the name no matter how many sharp farming implement owning rice farmers you threaten me with.
I can so relate to the ceiling fans!
Lovely article. My father and his wife used to think I was so brave hitchhiking across Australia and living the lifestyle I have…not much security in the traditional sense. But I think we just do what we do- and in my case some of it was far more stupid that brave. To me, living the sort of life they thought was normal- building a career and buying a house in my twenties- would have been so painful. I guess courage is in the eye of the beholder!
Haha… Sally, I rather think that bravery is what you make of it. I think you’re brave to go against convention. Most people do the typical and what’s expected. That is, we get a ‘normal’ Monday to Friday, 9 to 5 job, get married, buy a house and have kids. To do something like travel and couch surf is brave. If only in the going against the grain.
I’m supremely stunned and impressed about this solo carry-on bag! THAT is truly brave!
Ok so maybe your not brave, but at least your adventurous and definitely an inspiration. ( and pretty funny too, cause this whole article made me laugh)
Errrrr…..did your unused reference books include a description of “brave?” This sounds pretty bloody brave to me. xx
Sally — you’re my new hero!
This was fun to read! And I’m enjoying the comments that debate the true meaning of brave. Great job!
Thanks for all the comments everybody! I’m going with Susan — most of the so-called “brave” things I do are just plain stupid. Usually, I have no idea what I’m getting myself into. Oh, and, Karen, I have yet to couchsurf — at least on a stranger’s couch. Still kind of scared of strangers and their couches…