Why I Became a Nomad
An Adventure A Week
I was at a crossroads in my career and my awakening during my trip to Tanzania planted a seed.
I had been planning to launch a consulting firm but now I had a newfound focus. I decided to arrange my contracts so that I could travel overseas for at least 3 months a year. During this time abroad, I wanted to volunteer within local communities.
My life would no longer solely be about building a business back home. It would be about building a life across the globe. Little did I know where this decision would take me.
After several years of running my consulting firm, I decided to take the money that I was saving to buy a house and instead fund a 2-year trip exploring the world. I sold all my possessions and started a charitable giving fund so I could make donations along the way. I was all in.
I was able to make this choice because of the advantages I had growing up in a loving middle-class home as well as the opportunity to attend college.
My parents also introduced me to international travel at an early age, giving me a taste for adventure that is never quite sated. I’m always ready to pack up and head overseas, explore new locales, sample foreign foods, and experience new cultures firsthand.
The idea of volunteering as I traveled made sense to me. It was a way to learn more about the communities I was visiting, connect with people, and make new friends. It turned out to be all that—and so much more.
If you’re reading this, I’m guessing you share some of my passion for travel, community service, and adventure. There’s a lot of us out there; regular, everyday folks searching to make an impact with our lives.
Take my friend Jo from London. Jo runs a human resources division at a medium-sized corporation. Each year, Jo takes a month off to travel to a new region of the world. While there, she spends several weeks volunteering.
I met Jo while hiking to see the mountain gorillas in East Africa. When we parted, she was heading to Malawi to join a nonprofit organization that encourages children to read by delivering books to remote areas of the country. Jo spent several weeks riding in a mobile library and reading to children.
Then there are Caroline and Nieve, best friends and British doctors who were working with the chronically ill in Sub-Saharan Africa. Having finished their medical training, they decided to take a gap year to travel around Africa and provide palliative care to those in need.
When I met them in Kampala, the capital of Uganda, they were going into the city slums to administer pain medication to people suffering from HIV/AIDS and cancer. I recall being in awe of their dedication and caring.
Check out my friends Peter and Helen, a former advertising executive and stylist respectively, and both true New Yorkers. At the height of their careers, this married couple sold their Brooklyn loft and set out to explore the world.
After several years of traveling, they settled in Bali to run a marine research center tracking the manta ray population in the warm Indonesian waters.
Each of these friends combined what they love to do with charitable goals. When they followed their passions—encouraging children to read, tending to the sick, conducting environmental research—their lives became extraordinary and they began living their dreams.
Although many do, you don’t need to venture far and wide to make an impact. You can combine your passion and your philanthropy right in your own backyard.
Take Tracy in Chicago, Illinois, for example. Tracy’s a mortgage broker with a soft spot for helping animals—particularly pit bulls that have been rescued from the fighting ring.
To celebrate each mortgage she closes, she donates to the local animal shelter to help care for injured and abandoned animals. Tracy is making a real difference in the lives of the abused animals she loves.
My friend Chris is a business manager with a software company. He contacts local schools in San Francisco to provide technology audits. Once he assesses the school’s tech needs, he arranges for software donations and a technical team to update the school’s systems. He’s found a way to combine his business skills with his giving.
And how about Tom, the tow truck driver from Reno, Nevada? I met Tom when my car broke down and I needed a three-hour tow to Sacramento.
During the long ride, I learned that Tom, an outlaw biker, used to own a biker bar and hosted an annual poker run to raise money for one of his waitresses who had a child with a chronic disease. Eventually, the annual biker event was raising close to $10,000 each year to help the family with their medical bills.
Jo, Caroline and Nieve, Peter and Helen, Tracy, Chris, and Tom are just a few of the fabulous people I’ve met during my travels around the world.
Everyday people who are combining their passions with philanthropy. They’re making the world a better place and having a great time doing it. 🦋
Have you volunteered overseas? What was your experience like? Did it have a lasting impact for you and the community?
⭐ An Adventure A Week is a series based on my autobiography “Adventures Of A Nomad: 30 Inspirational Stories.” You can read the essays in order (or not). Can’t wait for the next installment? Get the book.
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Christened “Wander Woman” by National Geographic, Erin Michelson is a professional speaker and author of the Nomad Life™ series of travel books and guides, including the #1-ranked “Explore the World with Nomads.”
Beautiful article and I absolutely love the family picture. You look exactly the same and I a great photo of you with Mom and Dad.