A SIMPLE LIFE IS A HAPPY LIFE

enjoying the simple pleasures in life,
awesome hipster friends,
cheap wine and  indie music

I never believed in my father’s advice when it came to a simple lifestyle. For me simplicity was synonymous with, or rather a euphemism for being poor.

My biggest goal in life was to establish a huge corporation and make loads of money. I wanted to work hard so that I don’t have to work at a later stage in my life. My biggest role model was Richard Branson and his “Virgin” Group. I've read every book he wrote about business and I implemented every strategy for my small business venture during high school. I was successful, the richest kid around; my friends, teachers and relatives believed I was a multi-millionaire in the making... Up until I grew a little older, matriculated and embarked on my first African Odyssey into East-Africa 

with Doyoung Lee on the Tazara rail,
enroute to Tanzania from Zambia

That hitch hiking trip to Zanzibar made me different person... suddenly making money wasn’t a priority anymore. My mind shifted from the need of gathering to an attitude of “less is better”. I have come to realise the wisdom in simplicity and living with only what you need... something most long-term travellers can relate to.

But why on earth would a commerce student want to live a life of minimum possession and ultimate simplicity? Isn’t that defeating the purpose of my studies? That question is the reason why I decided to focus on this topic. Why living a simple life style is the most sophisticated choice you can make.

Now to clear up one point, I’m not some kind of Hindu or Buddhist monk-wanna-be. I don’t despise possessions. I don’t despise the whole “system” that every hipster, hippie and conspiracy theorist talks about. I study economics damn it! It’s my job to study to this system! To be perfectly honest my pursuit for simplicity is not fuelled by the hatred of possessions but rather by a strange type of laziness.

You see, living the rate race is for fit people. People who can manage to work 15 hours a day, generate tons of cash to pay their huge homes in which they spend the bare minimum time in. Do you catch my drift here? I am inherently lazy. I seek the easy way out and on many occasions I find it and that what I tribute my success to. I don’t want to spend 15 hours of my precious 24 chasing money to buy possessions that I could have lived without to start with. Life is much more than that! Work may be important, but we aren’t born to sell our souls for corporations and constant work.

My biggest desire in life is to have enough to come-by. All I need is 3 meals per day, new clothes once a year, a bicycle to travel around in town and a little place to live in. If you can’t clean it in less than an hour your place is way too big.

beautiful scenery and a little netbook,
what more do you need?

All want is enough cash to keep me alive, in economic terms I want to cover my autonomous expenditure, then I want enough to fund my travels and research and maybe have a little left for my 2^nd and 3^rd degree after I successfully finished this bloody one!  

I am sure many fellow travellers will agree with me, the more time you spend on the road the more you realise how simple life can become. All you need is those few possessions you manage to fit in your backpack yet when you think back to your normal life, you become shocked or maybe even appalled at all the stuff you possess back home which you actually never use, or thought your death would be inevitable without it!

 But these days I look up to travellers like Agness and Cez who strives to travel the world for under 25$ a day (www.etramping.com) and Dave Edwards (www.davestraveltales.com) with his laid back humorous approach to life and travel. These guys like quite a few other people have discovered a very precious pearl of wisdom  

A simple life is a happy life.

I can assure you; that little piece of advice I received from my father has stuck in my head for good.