Exile Lifestyle

As I write this I’m on a shuttle between Columbia, Missouri and St. Louis, looking out the window, listening to Yelle and typing away on my tiny little netbook.

Most parties are about getting together with friends, eating and drinking until you’re waddling around the room, and creating new memories. But what if you’re trying to bring about change? What if you want to move forward and let go of all the things that are anchoring you to the past?

When little kids are asked what they want to be when they grow up, they usually pick something that seems exciting or heroic. If they had their way, janitors, office clerks and yard care workers would be grossly under-represented (while we would have an abundance of astronauts, firefighters, fashion designers and Presidents of the United States).

As I write this I’m sitting along the periphery of the waiting area for Gate 35 at LAX airport, my worldly belongings nearly identifiable as they bulge and poke and scramble to find a way out of the carry-on bag they are piled into like refugees.

The first question that I would usually get from people when I initially started telling them about Exile Lifestyle was “When will you be coming back?” The second question was invariably “Is your girlfriend coming along with you?”

As I write this, I’m waiting for a half-dozen people to show up at my apartment so they can cart off my furniture. One lady wants my bedroom set, a younger gentleman is interested in one of my three office desks, and a couple of college students want to take a look at my one remaining bookcase.

Today I woke up in Mesa, Arizona, went for a quick swim, ate remarkably-accurate New York-style pizza in a Southwestern town with a population of around 200, drove to the Grand Canyon, slipped on my Vibram Five Fingers and hiked a bit, slowly made my way to a Route 66 town called Williams where I downed a Blue Moon, listened to some live, twangy oldies music (sung by a mountain man), then watched Jurassic Park while relaxing in a cheapish hotel room with too many beds.

Weve all been in situations that have been less than ideal. Your job might suck or your roommates might be a burden on your mind and your wallet. You may feel stuck in a mire of crummy college classes or weighed down by your sycophantic ‘friends.’

As someone who reads a whole lot, I’m constantly discovering that there are very few new ideas, and most of the ones that claim to be are really just derivative of old ones with a new label slapped on them.

File this under ‘weird things that Colin does for fun at parties.’

In addition to playing the Meet New People game (which I’ll cover in the near future), I make it a point to learn at least one completely new fact from each person I talk to when I’m out networking (also: at a friend’s birthday party, attending a museum opening or really anything else where I come into contact with people).

The facts don’t have to relate to anything in particular and can run the gamut from something you’d learn in a textbook to something you’d learn on prime time television to something you’d learn on the streets.