The Spoked Traveller | Blog
Trails and advice cycling around the world as solo female cyclist and adventurer
mountain bike, adventure travel, cycling travel, bike tours, outdoor, solo travel, female mountain biking, badass female cycling, female travellers, women travel, adventurous
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Transitions. The proverbial stop-overs in life. Leaving one person, place, thing and moving onto the next. But not knowing what is next. Spooky? Life. Made the big move to Toronto last weekend (UHaul full of bed...

When I was a child, and even into my teen years, I played this mental game. I'd pretend that my house burnt down and everything in it. I'd pretend that I had nothing: gone was my sticker collection, my dolls. As a teen it was my Esprit tops or maybe that new Roots shirt I got at the Mall after working weekend shifts at Baskin Robbins. I'd try imagining what it would feel like if I truly had...only me. No stuff. Well, I find myself moving once again and this means purging stuff. As a 40-something woman, I'm playing that game again: what would it feel like without anything? And at this age, what role does stuff play in my life?

After eating at an Ethiopian restaurant with my food writing students from Western University, it was our last class, I gave a student a drive home--she lived on the way to my place. It was her last day of her undergraduate life: she had graduated. "I feel surreal," she says. "I am taking off a year, maybe two. I don't know what I want to do." This was so refreshing to hear for a few reasons. Great to those students who know what they want to do right away, you are rare, but for this girl who studied pop culture music (she also plays the fiddle on the weekends!) and writing, she wants those two years to explore, to learn, to wander.