Walden on Wheels: On the Open Road from Debt to Freedom

by Ken Ilgunas

I had no problem with the idea of a sixteen-hour workday; it was just that I couldn’t stomach the idea of someone else deciding everything from my salary to my time off to whether I had health insurance to when I could retire. I wanted to work. But I wanted to be free, too.

I realized the journey that I was on wasn’t about getting out of debt or finding my perfect job, or girlfriend, or life. It was about becoming the best man I could be. I knew from experience that the only thing keeping me from turning back into the person I’d left behind in New York was voluntary simplicity.

For some, it’s hard to think that the direction of success is anywhere but up the socioeconomic ladder, especially when success is largely measured by security, comfort, and wealth. But maybe progress can point in funny directions. Must we measure our success by the size of our homes and salaries? What if we got healthier, lived more sustainably, and became more self-reliant, albeit in tighter dwellings and in smaller families? Isn’t that success, too?