I never planned on an Odyssey. \u00a0I had no experience, desire or understanding of the concept. \u00a0And while over the past eight years, I came to refer to these quadrennial treks of mine as such, I confess that I really had no idea what it meant, how it worked or why I did it. \u00a0Until this year. \u00a0It came into sharp focus this year. \u00a0.<\/p>\n
It might help to start with a standard definition,<\/p>\n
Fair enough. \u00a0But eight years ago all I really wanted to do was ride my scooter across country. \u00a0That it happened the same year as the most historic election of my lifetime (of which I was obsessed) well, that was happy coincidence. \u00a0Using a microphone just gave me an excuse to talk to people.<\/p>\n
Turns out\u00a0I had accidentally created my\u00a0Odyssey. \u00a0Here are some of the essential elements and recommendations,<\/p>\n
It starts by going alone<\/em>.<\/em>\u00a0 To separate yourself physically from your home and to\u00a0put as much distance as you can from all of the ways you identify yourself. \u00a0For the duration, the people you meet will not know where you went to school, what you do for a living, or that you are a Mom who drinks too much Diet Coke. \u00a0Your interactions are just you, in that moment, in that place.<\/p>\n Put the same face forward everyday<\/em>. \u00a0Pick one outfit and image (I recommend no makeup) that you know is constant in every interaction. \u00a0Hint – It does help if your clothing stands out in a way that indicates you are not a local. \u00a0A willingness to make yourself ridiculous (cow pants or an accidental Easter peep lookalike) works wonders.<\/p>\n Make it hard and\u00a0foreign.<\/em> \u00a0Greyhound bus, scooter, sleeping in Walmart parking lots, a daily challenge that serves as a reminder that you are in unfamiliar territory.<\/p>\n Move every day<\/em>. \u00a0Experience as many different places and people as you can. \u00a0This is not a time for leisurely pacing. \u00a0For me, the benefit was in the patterns that I could only see relative to each other and the chance to string them together.<\/p>\n Take it as you find it. \u00a0<\/em>Land where you land and do not research or plan ahead. \u00a0Eat when you are hungry and take what is offered. \u00a0This is not a time for Yelp. \u00a0Most of all, meet every person where they are and listen. \u00a0 That is the most powerful of all.<\/p>\n And finally, the willingness to not know why you are doing it and\u00a0to not expect any particular outcome is\u00a0the greatest gift you give yourself. \u00a0What you observe and what you discover is secondary (I will share mine\u00a0tomorrow) but the experience of being in the world as you are… \u00a0well, it is simply enough.<\/p>\n [youtube video=oHvk75SPbn4]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I never planned on an Odyssey. \u00a0I had no experience, desire or understanding of the concept. \u00a0And while over the past eight years, I came to refer to these quadrennial treks of mine as such, I confess that I really had no idea what it meant, how it worked or why I did it. \u00a0Until … Continue reading “Backing into an Odyssey”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hwireroad.org\/2016\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hwireroad.org\/2016\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hwireroad.org\/2016\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hwireroad.org\/2016\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hwireroad.org\/2016\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=315"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.hwireroad.org\/2016\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":319,"href":"https:\/\/www.hwireroad.org\/2016\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315\/revisions\/319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hwireroad.org\/2016\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hwireroad.org\/2016\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hwireroad.org\/2016\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}