This is an unedited note Brandon wrote on his iPhone one morning after work in February 2016 at 6:36am when he couldn't sleep. We had recently been on a board game bender and played The Game of Life and Monopoly almost every night. This is about 6 months after the initial "running away to the woods" conversation, and we had started talking about what it would take to actually quit the real world and start our own adventure.
February 26, 2016 6:36am
I realized we had to shake things up during a game of life. The board game. We were playing this game, going around the board collecting life bars and getting married and having kids and losing jobs and getting new ones. And thinking that game has managed to depict the most basic human needs and desires and turn it into a competition. I don't think life is a competition at all, I think it's an experience. And I came to the realization that I was living just like my character in the board game, but without collecting life bars. You don't get life bars waking up, going to work, drinking coffee, then going to crossfit. You get life bars by experiencing life, by having new experiences and growing as a person. The funny thing about the game of life is right out of the gate, the first decision you have to make is should I get a job or go to college. I don't know about you, but I had a life before that, in fact I gained the most life bars of anytime of my life because everything I was experiencing was new. I miss seeking new information and experiences like I did when I was young. Most of all I miss being curious. Somewhere along the way I forgot what it meant to be interested in my surroundings. I had an amazing penthouse apartment with skyline and ocean views, awesome friends, an amazing wife and a job I loved. But somewhere down the line I started taking it for granted.
I want to leave a city I truly believe is the best in the country to find shitty ones. I want to experience them with an open mind, a mindset I rarely allow myself to have. I want to do thousands of things for the first time. I'm 30 years old and I've never caught a fish, I'm doing something wrong. I want to learn as much as I can and I want to feel uncomfortable in order to grow. But most of all I want to spend time with my wife. We have always joked about runnaing away and living in the woods and I think now we might actually get to do it.
I don't know how we will do it or even if we can make it work. But I also think there is only one way to find out....