We Are Moving 4500 Miles - Out of Morocco and into a Bus
Ben & Brandi here, to drop a little bomb, the effects of which are minimal to you - but completely life-altering for us. So here it goes . . . after 6 years in Morocco, we are heading back to the States and buying a school bus. The school bus will be the vehicle we use to begin crafting the next stage of our dream lives. It is and will continue to be hard. We are minimizing down from a 5 bedroom, 3 bath house to 200 square feet. We are saying goodbye to friends and communities that are like family. And building our new home with very minimal skills or training. We are buzzing, learning, and stretching in every way possible. Check out our individual thoughts and what led to this place and the decision below.
And if you don’t want to read all of this, you can check out our youtube video below.
Ben’s journey:
January 2015. A lifetime of searching and yearning for something ineffable had led me to JFK International Airport in New York. I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do (have I ever??) but I knew what experiences, emotions, and values I wanted to center my life around. I wanted to help others with what capabilities I had. I wanted to experience life outside the American bubble. I wanted to be pushed and pulled and challenged outside of my innate introverted comfort zone bubble.
To that point in my 24 years of life, I had never spent any significant time outside of the place in which I grew up. I had no tangible experience in living in an area outside the American Midwest, much less outside the United States. The practical condition of my life as it was lived led to the pressing question, “How??”
The answer came through the vessel of volunteering with the Peace Corps in the country of Morocco. I had no prior knowledge of what Morocco was before arriving. I intentionally arrived in Casablanca with a mind unencumbered by Internet research and with fresh eyes ready to take in the forthcoming experiences.
I left the USA for two years and never got back on the return flight when my Peace Corps contract expired. Six years have elapsed since me and my youthful naivety first touched down in Morocco with do-gooding intentions.
It feels like a lifetime ago.
The nature of everyday life often leaves us bereft of the time and space to reflect upon the provenance of our past selves and the sum total of the evolutionary processes that we have undergone. I am a fallible human being. I have committed terrible transgressions against myself and those I care about. I have also done some good things for myself and others. Friends have come and gone, sometimes by the vagaries of fate, sometimes by the necessary excision required when one realizes that they no longer serve their highest self.
Morocco has given me a space to experience the full spectrum of what it means to be a human on the perpetual road to self-actualization. It has helped strip me of the bullshit I told myself about who/what/why I am and who/what/why the world is. I have reached the summit of great mountains (literally!) and sunk to the depths of crippling existential panic attacks. I have been surrounded by great people and found a home amongst a widespread community of family by blood and by choice. I have learned a new language, and with it, a greater appreciation of an ancient world culture and people.
Whew.
Morocco made me who I am today, and I am better for it. After 6 years blessed by its comforts, I am ready to experience a new reality. I am ready to leave Morocco.
What comes next?
The realities of living and working in the friendly confines of my house for the last 3,000 years of the COVID-19 pandemic have made me realize even more what and where I want to be. To achieve all the varied goals, hopes, and dreams that have bubbled up during this time, I need to have a home that can be antifragile in an age of constant uncertainty. I need a home that can allow me to break bread with family and friends stretched across the United States and the world.
I need a bus. A school bus, to be precise.
With my partner Brandi and my dog Ragnar, we will:
find an old bus in the USA
convert it into a habitable motorhome that advances our varied dreams
Use that platform to achieve said goals and dreams, wherever that may be.
I recently happened across a quote from Leo Tolstoy that sums up what we want to create. In his book Family Happiness (1859), Tolstoy wrote:
“I have lived through much, and now I think I have found what I need for happiness. A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to having it done to them; then rest, nature, books, music, love for one’s neighbor - such is my idea of happiness.”
Here’s to a life fulfilled for all, in whatever fashion and function that best serves our highest selves.
Brandi’s journey:
To the great dismay of my mother, I have never been one to shy away from hard things. My life and journey has been a winding road that has taken me all over the world. Cambodia. Vietnam, Haiti. India. Morocco. A bus to everywhere. Each person and place I have spent time with has taught me something and made me the sum total of who I am today. But there is so much more yet to come.
7 years ago, while at an entrepreneurship retreat, I participated in a guided meditation where I was encouraged to imagine my life 10 years from then. We closed our eyes and walked through what our ideal day would look like. What would we wear, what did our house look like, what did we eat, who were our friends, what sort of work did we do, etc.
During that meditation, I imagined that I would be living in a light-filled house in Morocco, running an ethically produced leather company. Six months after that meditation, I arrived in Morocco for the first time. Two months later, I had a business. 7 years later and here I am, writing this post from my living room in Morocco.
Most everyone thought I was crazy. And let me tell you, it has been HARD, but it has also been so SWEET and fulfilling.
When you move around as much as I have, your values are truly put to the test. They are forged by fire and through obstacle after obstacle. They are distilled down to their truest essence. For me, these are the values that inform my decision-making.
I believe in connection - with myself, with others, and with nature.
I believe that we all deserve to live the life we yearn for.
I believe we are responsible for creating the space we need to be our best selves.
I believe in intentionally imagining and then actively crafting the life we want.
Because of these values, these are goals I have for living the skoolie life:
I want time and the freedom to fill it with the things I love the most
I want space that is ours and a reflection of what’s important to us.
I want to be inspired and to learn something new every day.
I want to push myself further than even I can imagine.
I want to use my hands to build our home.
I want to share my experiences with as many people as possible.
I want to create a safe space for us and for every person who enters.
I want to be connected to my home in a very visceral way.
I want to live without the burden of debt weighing upon my shoulders.
I want to use this mobile platform to seek out community in all its various forms.
I want to use this platform to help advance the causes I believe in, and the communities who believe in them as well.
I want these things not only for me and mine but for all those who are searching for their own unique paths through this life. There is no one prescribed method for life. To each their own, and there are literally infinite numbers of ways to survive and thrive in an often difficult world.
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