What the Hell is Wrong With You?

This is a guest post by Joe Platt.

I had someone say those words to me right before she stopped talking to me. In fact, I’ve had quite a few people say that to me and other seemingly restless travelers. What the hell is wrong with me? What the hell is wrong with us?

Depot-Jamestown-North-DakotaI’ve spent the last few years roaming around the world and the country searching for something better than stagnation. Most people are comfortable with stagnation. Whether you have a job you need to hold onto or obligations you need to maintain. Most people are stagnant and are comfortable with that. If you are, I’m not criticizing you, but stagnation has always been more painful to me than seemingly years of aimless wanderings.

Last week I left Illinois for the Bakken formation, a booming economic area in western North Dakota. People thought I was missing and perhaps dead. A missing persons report was filed for me. I suppose I should have told people why I was moving again, but they would have told me a dozen reasons why I shouldn’t move, why I shouldn’t leave and why I should be comfortable with my stagnation. Contrary to their belief, I’m not dead and I’m actually more alive than the last year of stagnation in Illinois.

Worlds-Largest-Buffalo-Jamestown-North-DakotaThe move up here hasn’t been easy. I’ve spent the majority of my money, and I thought I was going to be homeless yesterday. I also needed a hair-cut. I’m certainly not a hippie or a drifter; I am a traveler. I offered my beloved computer, my window to the world, as a deposit for an apartment. To my surprise, my landlord refused. Not only did she refuse, she also happens to cut hair and offered me a hair-cut. You can be a traveler, but you still don’t have to look like a homeless person. I now have a place to live, a job and a hair-cut thanks to the wonderful people of Culbertson, Montana.

Street-Jamestown-North-DakotaAm I looking for a hand-out? No, absolutely not. If I was looking for a hand-out, I would have stayed in Illinois. With the same job, the same people and the same stagnation that seems to plague me when I return home. Is the problem me? Perhaps it is. There are some of us that are not content with stagnation, however comfortable it may be. I am one of them.

I built Generation Passport, on the premise that you are never stuck, no matter where you live or how hopeless things are. There is always a giant planet out there and you are free to roam it, don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t. The travellers of history are the people that found new lands and started whole economies, in which you now reside. We are not travelling just for ourselves, but for interaction with other lands and people who we normally should not be in contact with. In essence, the travellers of today are the Oregon Trail pioneers of the future. We’re going places, whether we fail or succeed for the hell of it, and who knows what will be built in our wake.

Memorial-Jamestown-North-DakotaThink about any city you know. What is it named after? Who settled there and what are the economies built on? Those who conquer an area can try to change things as much as they want, but they can’t conquer the history of an area. History is history, and how you act and think is built on the blood, genetics and laws of the past. It may be covered up and hidden, like in the Soviet Union, but the history is there for you to find. The very foundations of stagnant life, were built by very mobile people sailing their ships and roaming tribes.

So what the hell is wrong with us wanders of the earth?

Nothing.

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We’re busy building the future, whether we know it or not, and connecting humanity in ways which will not mean anything to this generation. We’ll be remember as the pioneers of the future though, when the lands that we travel to and live on will build whole societies and economies on our very footsteps. If that means sailing a hand-built raft on the Danube or freezing to death in North Dakota, so be it. This is a great big scary world, and we shouldn’t be afraid of it.

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Joe-PlattAbout the AuthorGeneration-Passport

Joe Platt is the founder of Generation Passport, writer, photographer, traveler, English teacher and EMT-B. Joe has backpacked Asia and was the first foreign teacher in two schools in the former Soviet state of Georgia through the program Teach and Learn with Georgia. He hopes to teach others how they can use the internet to work and travel 2.0. Follow Joe on Generation Passport.

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This post forms part of the Why Don’t You Get a Real Job? series.

By | 2018-03-01T09:48:44+00:00 December 18th, 2013|Thoughts and Inspiration|4 Comments

4 Comments

  1. Chris 04/01/2014 at 16:13 - Reply

    Hi!
    I think living in a one place does not necessarily cause a stagnation. Person can evolve and challenge themselves regardless of an outer scenery (but it is true that most people rather chose to remain in their comfort zones). I think it is okay to seek a thrill on the road as long as we are not trying to escape from something.

    I am curious- how exactly are you building the future?

    • GenerationPassport 06/01/2014 at 18:57 - Reply

      We’re building the the future in the same way roaming tribes and people sailing their ships around the world for the hell-of-it did…by complete accident and by inspiration.

      Lee Kuan Yew, founding father of modern Singapore, saw England in the early twentieth century and returned home to build a society to compete with what he saw–and he did. In fact, Singapore was started as a British trade route by a rogue British sailor named Raffles right in the Dutch East Indies Territory.

      The Chinese have built a system modeled on the economic system of the United States, someone would have had to traveled to the U.S.A., for the hell-of-it, became jealous of what we built, and returned home to build a competing society. In fact, when the Chinese tested out Capitalism, they did it in special economic zones to see if it would work for them.

      Ataturk, founder of modern Turkey, spent time in Germany and revamped the alphabet to Latin script from Arabic. He also modeled laws on European nations when founding modern Turkey.

      Now, are all of us that you read about here going to do such great things? Probably not, but one of us will. That is why I said we are going places, for the hell-of-it, whether we fail or succeed. I should have made that more clear. Thanks for the comment.

      • Jamie 07/01/2014 at 23:41 - Reply

        We don’t get anywhere if we don’t try.

  2. Steven 19/12/2013 at 03:07 - Reply

    Great post Joe, and glad to see you here on GBSW! It is very true what you say…that many people are content with or unable to break free from their stagnant lives. But like a pond, it only becomes stagnant when the water stops flowing, and that is the key movement. If we move around, we stay free, and it perpetuates more and more movement, until one day, much like yourself, Jamie, Leslie and I, find ourselves unable to settle and not even wanting to.
    As Jack kerouac says, “Lean forward to the next crazy adventure beneath the skies.”

    Cheers fellas.

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