Again: not written by me, but put on my blog for me...It's always good to know someone thinks the same way that you do...

I can't say that I ever looked at my parents and said 'I want or don't want that.' And while my dad has always done a great job of leaving work at work, I know he's had struggles and that he gets through them by looking forward to what he loves, hunting and fishing. So I taught myself to just try and pursue the things I love and skip over that 'being unhappy and needing something to look forward to' business. I've had some pretty interesting jobs, but I've also left out American Dream ideas like starting a family or planning for retirement.

The most stability I've had since college was Peace Corps, which was arguably a pretty exotic form of it. A word I have chosen to differentiate my life against the more traditional path is 'routine'. With the exception of where I am right now - knowing I'll be here for another 1.5 years - I often haven't known where I'd be just three months into the future (in fact the longest job I've had since 2004 has been just 3.5 months long). That's a sexy 'life resume' point to throw out in selling yourself as an adventurer, but there are also limits to it.

Some of this is depressing. I've spent a lot of time reveling in the excitement of my short-term lifestyle, promising never to work at one job more than a year or two. I also even went so far as to expect never to have a high-paying job, because Real Jobs with Real Pay bring expectations and responsibility which will extract my soul.