There is something inherently liberating about waking up one day (or slowly over many days) and realizing there is absolutely nothing holding you to where you are. No job. No house. No partner. Nothing. In reality, if the opportunity presented itself, you could pick up, pack up, and go wherever the hell you wanted to at a moments notice.
After this realization hits you the dreams will inevitably follow. Dreams of amazing jobs in new cities with new local dives to discover and befriend. New apartments to cram everything you can into at the top of creaky sets of new stairs. You begin to dream of selling your stuff to finance the escape plan. Every time you walk into your home you now look at everything you own with the eye of "do I really need that?" You start making invisible piles in your head of
Sell,
Toss,
Keep.
The going away party begins to get planned with months to spare. The Evite title, "Hello 30, Goodbye Chicago!" is already written, you just need to choose the font. Then the faces of the friends you've made start to fill your vision. You like a lot of these people and are pretty damn glad you got a chance to meet them. But, and not to sound mean here folks, let's get real. That's what Facebook, Twitter, and blogs are for. And how great will it be when your new apartment becomes a place they can go on vacation? And, once you've convinced yourself that you can absolutely keep in touch with all your wonderful windy city friends (and quieted the voice that nags sarcastically and dripping with guilt in the back of your head saying "
yeah, like you did with your Wisconsin friends? The ones you never talk to anymore?") the dream machine of starting something new once again starts up.
So you sit down in front of your computer and say to the world, "World, here I come, bring me opportunity and excitement!" and nothing happens. Because, while many of the books you read may think this stuff is everyday accessories for most folks, you don't yet have a computer that will respond to your voice or your day dreams and magically find exactly what you need.
But you don't give up. You begin to search. Fingers poised above that QWERTY line, ready to find your new Eden. And then it hits you. If you thought finding a single new job in Chicago was hard, where the hell do you begin when the whole world is a possibility? And even better, it then starts to sink in. As liberating and freeing as realizing that you are beholden to none and the world is open to your exploration is, it is also absolutely and completely immobilizing as well. It will stop you dead in your tracks in it's largeness. It will leave you with your feet stuck in the cement while your head drifts amongst the clouds.
