Emptying the nest, Taking Flight

 

Image by 愚木混株 Cdd20 from Pixabay

I have lived in three states in my adult life. Geographically physical parts of the United States, I’m sure I’ve lived in many more emotional/spiritual states (sometimes more than one at once) but that’s a different story for a different time. Most of my time away from Minnesota was in my mid-to-late 20’s; Northern California for graduate school and Maryland/DC for my postdoc. After 7.5 years away, and having had two kids, an opportunity to move home presented itself and we took it.

Now, 16 years after moving back to the land of 10 kilo-lakes (order of magnitude estimate), the wanderlust is re-emerging. I’m finding myself tied to my exact location less and less and am becoming more curious about living in the greater world. While tourist-type travel may satiate some of that, I’ve grown fond of the idea of spending extended time elsewhere. By that, I’m thinking of the order of three to six months; something on the order of a sabbatical.

This would be enough time for the newness of a place to wear off and experience day-to-day life. At the same time, I don’t think I’d be interested if it was essentially all “on holiday”. The master plan would be to find some manner of collaboration, probably in my native field of magnetics, and partake in a research project.  I do have a couple in mind and want to start reaching out to colleagues for opportunities.

This may also involve taking some sort of leave or going by the self-agreement that it would be part of a career pivot. Who knows where it might pivot to, who knows? I do like the idea of transitioning into more of a teaching/professorial role. Or maybe it could be coordinated as just an extended leave from my current place. Or maybe it marks the start of something entirely new, e.g. starting a business or a mix of things. I do tend to like having too many things on my proverbial plate. The trouble with work is you need to be able to really focus to be good at it. Diving into split roles may detract from being able to do my best and, in the worst case, result in no longer being gainfully employed.

The question is “Where to?”. My first thoughts are of western Europe. I have enjoyed my trips there, particularly to Spain. Bavaria and Austria have also warmed on me recently as I’ve had cause to visit for work. There are also many beautiful cities and quality research going on in eastern Europe. For right now though the main point of interest would be Spain. Still as I’d like to align the move with some research opportunity, I would be doing myself a disservice to not keep an open mind.

Asia might be another option. My only venture there was for a conference in Taiwan. Admittedly, the mix of jet lag, lack of readily available ice water and not always knowing what I was ordering made it a challenge. This makes it interesting as there is some enticement to the challenge of moving about a non-Westernized society. It would certainly be a mind-opening experience.

As one Mark Twain once wrote, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.”

I need this, we need this. Get out and explore. Learn about how others live, love, eat and learn. In past experiences I have only concluded that we are alike in a lot of ways and our differences are fascinating but not so far removed that we can’t understand other perspectives.

It is in stogy sedentarianism that we lose the ability to empathize and truly connect. We are now in a, hopefully short-lived, era where not believing in the best in others is winning. Our “social” media is isolating us in bubbles where even the events covered in “the news” don’t overlap. We rely on spin and pundits, whose ultimate goal is to capture you as a market. They want to keep you clicking and swiping. Making pennies here and there every time you inadvertently click on an ad or anxiety and persistence pull you into making another buy. Decentralized narratives, devoid of fact and empathy, have become our beliefs and our faith.

Anything different or anyone who disagrees is an imminent threat. We venture out less and less. We don’t strike up conversations, we sit at the coffee shop, at the bar, at the bookstore, in our cars and at home staring at a screen looking for answers. While these “answers” feel good or scary or some form of non-centered emotion they are designed for one purpose: click, click, click and don’t ever ask, “is it really true?” And so, we are overwhelmed.

I certainly did not mean for these last couple of paragraphs, but they did just fall out of what I am really meaning to write about: reconnecting with the world in a meaningful way. Thus, in this desire to travel and experience life elsewhere is the desire to re-connect as I am now able to leave the nest.

If I find myself able to and really enjoy the adventure, I may seek to do it again and again. The hardest part may just be those first steps. Hopefully, beyond that it becomes natural to set the social media down and become social.

“It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.”  - -Some old book about rings and Hobbits and meeting people in faraway lands.