Walden Wheels Open Road Freedom
I hesitated to get this book, as a feared that I would not like the author, and thus not relate to the story. I was thinking he was just another of those people who want attention for being rebellious or "weird". Instead, I found a young man who does rebel against blindly following society's "norms", but does so in large part because of what he believes, not just to rebel for the sake of rebelling I found much of what he wrote to be well thought out. He does indeed remind me of Thoreau, and is a worthy successor.
The book in broken into 4 parts: Debtor, or My Attempt to Pay Off $32,000 in Student Debt with a Useless Liberal Arts Degree; Tramp, or My Attempt to Live a Free Life in Spite of Debt; Grad Student, or My Attempt to Afford Grad School by Moving into a Creepy Red Van, and Vandweller, or How I Learned to Live Simply.
The following are brief quotes from the book that give insight into the outlook of Mr. Ilgunas, and showcase what you can expect from the book: "Yet after each rest, I was able to get up and take a few more steps, and a few more after that. At some point, I'd wandered into that strange territory between my perceived limits and my actual limits -- that stretch of land called the "unknown" a territory as wild and unfamiliar at the Alaskan country before me." (pp. 25); "Perhaps there's no better act of simplification than climbing a mountain. For an afternoon, a day, or a week, it's a way of reducing a complicated life into a simple goal." (pp. 29); "I became obsessed with destroying what I thought was most constraining me. The debt wasn't a mere dollar amount; it was a villain that needed to be vanquished, a dragon that needed to be slain, a windmill that needed to be toppled." (pp. 47); I was bearing witness to an ancient ritual (the northern lights) that I felt I'd seen in a previous lifetime. I was being reacquainted with the images processed by a million eyes before me, reveling in the privileges of the great human experience. Money, prestige, possessions, a home with two and a half bathrooms -- these aren't the guiding lights of our universe that show us our path." (pp. 73); "When we tell ourselves that we are controlled, we can shift the responsibility of freeing ourselves onto that which controls us. When we do that, we don't have to bear the responsibility of our unhappiness or shoulder the burden of self-ownership. We don't have to do anything. And nothing will ever change." (pp. 74); "(Thoreau) described how his fellow citizens ("serfs of the soil") would toil away at desks or on huge farms, hating every minute of it, just so they could live in large homes and wear fashionable clothes in order to impress their neighbors, who were also unhappily employed." (pp. 78); "By having had to do without, I discovered that I was, in many ways, better off." (pp.78); ""while I only made $22,000 in a year, I saved 82 percent of it and could have saved nearly 100 percent if I hadn't spent it on my trip to Ecuador and other tiny luxury costs." (pp.81); "Alaska taught me that anything was possible; that there are other ways to live, to work, to shelter oneself; that the cold wasn't so cold; and that -- even in an age of inky oceans and suburban sprawl -- there was still wildness." (pp.88); "Frankly, I didn't know what the hell I was doing. This was all just so weird. Yet I knew the experience would be memorable. And I hoped that the strain of the voyage might somehow fast-forward my development." (pp.109); "But when we go on a journey -- especially a journey that follows no one else's footsteps -- it has the capacity to help a person become something unique, an individual. While Western society never had anything quite like the vision quest, we do have a heritage of journeying laced into our cultural DNA." (pp. 116): "The voyage was teaching me how unexceptional I was and how exceptional the human mind and body is." (pp. 117); "I learned that when work is meaningful and when the worker produces some useful service or produces some useful product, work is no longer "work" but an enriching component of one's day." (pp. 145); "I was so terrified of guilt I never did anything that I thought someone else would disapprove of. For my whole life, I'd been feeling guilt for doing -- or wanting to do -- what my instincts begged that I do." (pp. 148).
In short, life is about experiences and personal growth, not stuff.
Get your Walden Wheels Open Road Freedom Now!
Am three fourths thru the book and LOVE it. As the title clearly notes its about a young man who starts out with debt and becomes free in large part because he takes to the road. It's not just for someone heading into college debt or someone with college debt. There are so many valuable lessons to be learned from the authors journey.
BalasHapusHe is so honest about his failings and how hard it was but also life enriching, to go from serious debt to debt free. He also shares the journey he took and how it related to a close friend who had even more debt, and ended up in a job which involved getting young people into college debt. And this friend had even more college debt than the author.
The author shares his serious struggles in finding jobs, as well as the interesting characters he encountered be it in remote areas of Alaska or working with a Canadian wilderness guy who had them living as if it were the 1800's, or working in Mississippi with a motley crew of young people.
When reading the part where he goes shopping for a van to live in and all that entailed and then what he did to make it livable is part of the book I am encouraging all my Small House Society friends to read. Because those of us in the SHS movement love the less is more mindset and the author certainly had that.
But it's the way the author writes that makes you feel as if you are a fly on the wall watching and listening in that makes this a book that holds your attention. To be honest I would lay in bed and read before going to sleep, and then when I would wake up in the middle of the night I would turn the bedside light on and want to read even more. It holds your attention that well.
Really encourage anyone who is up to a challenge, who wants to live a less is more, or debt free lifestyle to read the book and glean some wonderful wisdom from it.
'I am convinced, both by faith and experience, that to maintain one's self on this earth is not a hardship but a pastime, if we will live simply and wisely...' Henry David Thoreau
May 10th: Finished the book and this a book I want to share with so many people. So nice to read that the author is walking his talk and has not gone back to his old ways but has embraced the lessons he learned when living in his van and working so hard to be debt free. Love this book!
BalasHapus