Chiara Townley
Contributor
This past July my husband and I packed 3 years of life in Berkeley, California. We will leave all our stuff in the house of my in-laws for 6 months while we will travel around the world.
I lived in 3 different countries to date, but this was the first time I had to pack more than 2 suitcases. We didn’t sell anything as we are planning to come back to the US after the trip and move our furniture in a new apartment, the place is yet to be decided.
Photograph via Unsplash
In few days our little lovely nest became a cardboard mess. That’s when I started to realize that we, as humans, live with way too much stuff. Primitives lived with the essentials: a place to sleep, food and few other tools. How did we become so materialistic?
Society evolved to the point that we started to surround ourselves with useless stuff that we probably use or touch once a year.
But somehow we are not ready to throw it away: too many plates, too many clothes, too many ornaments and the list could go on forever.
The other thing to consider is that you have to clean the apartment throughly because your landlord comes to inspect it and if he finds something wrong with it he might decide to keep a part of your deposit.
The result is stress on top of stress on top of boxes. But with a good team work everything is possible. Once the back of the truck was full I couldn’t believe my eyes. In that moment my husband and I looked at each other and we were thinking the same thing. We were craving an essential life and the freedom to move anytime anywhere with no stress and no truck.
Photograph via Unsplash
Those are serendipitous moments when you have a vision of a different life for the first time and for the first time you think that it’s possible if you really want it. We were ready to hit the road with our life of 3 years behind us, literally. Every time we stopped for lunch and I looked at the truck I couldn’t believe we were traveling with everything we owned. That feeling was great. It was pure freedom. We were happy homeless.
Soon we will embark in a journey that will mark our life deeply. And when we come back hopefully we will live the life that we envisioned the day we looked at the truck and saw in each others eyes the reflection of the essential dream.
More About Chiara Townley: Chiara Townley was born in Milan, Italy in 1984. She has always had a passion for foreign languages and travel. She lived in 4 countries to date and she likes defining herself as a citizen of the world. Chiara became an author to inspire and empower. She believes that travel is a passion that can take us to different paths in life – a vehicle to open new horizons. Her motto is: “Fairy tales exist and it depends on us to make them happen.” You can learn more about Chiara at chiarabtownley.com.