GM and Happy Holidays everyone! 🎉
I'm writing this blog from the airport, flying back to California today to join the Mars College community at my home base in Bombay Beach.
Inspired by this End of Year Vision Mapping post, I'm excited to share some reflection prompts I've crafted and sent to close friends for a 2024 Reflections & 2025 Manifestations exercise.
But First, some holiday tunes...
‘the default life is so 2024.’
Being on a pathless path is scary, especially when you're used to a structured lifestyle.
Yet more people are embracing this unconventional path—they quit their jobs, relocate, learn new skills, and take on diverse roles. These "high-agency individuals" constantly create and bring their ideas to life.
They are creators, founders, explorers, and dreamers — people who refuse to accept the status quo and strive to make positive changes.
Three years ago, I gathered my courage, ignored the warnings from everyone I knew, and (metaphorically) boarded a pirate ship to chase my dreams.
I deeply believed our world needed transformation. I envisioned building a better world—one that's holistically healthy, equitable, and sustainable. A world without waste, where humans and nature coexist in harmony, where isolated individuals find community easily, where industrial pollution doesn't threaten us, and where we're free from this destructive capitalistic system that leaves millions homeless, addicted, sick, and depressed.
I believed our world needed an exit strategy, as many still believe this today.
"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete." - Buckminster Fuller
This journey led me to a rabbit hole of exploring "alternative" lifestyles, where people gather to build "new worlds" together—many of these experiences are documented in past articles of this blog.
At the core of this experience, I realized that I was the one who needed the exit strategy. My environment wasn't working out—I couldn't relate to those around me and felt uninspired by my career path. I needed something new: to explore different environments, to live in alignment with my values, to pursue a lifestyle I enjoyed, and to discover my mission during my limited time on this planet. 🌎
When we have a blank canvas to start from scratch, why not pursue our grandest dreams?
The power of idealists lies in their courage to dream, rebel, and create movements that push our world forward—like Greta Thunberg, the Green New Deal, the Stonewall protests, and most recently, the extreme example of Luigi Mangione's radical act against UnitedHealthcare's CEO.
Without these idealists, we risk sinking into comfort and complacency.
Imagining a better world isn't enough—we must build it.