Catchy Title Relevant to My Brand

Who am I? Do you ever ask yourself that?

I’m Jason. I oversee part of a phone bank at a call center. I like mountain biking and have a secret Hello Kitty fixation.

I’m Mara. I oversee the budgeting for construction projects in the city. I enjoy fencing and playing Call of Duty.

I’m Izaak, I write books and have been living out of a minivan for a year and a half.

Who are you? Who am I? What makes us us?

I bring this up because I am in the middle of a huge pivot...well, huge to me. My desire for a “homebase” has led me to apply for jobs in my hometown and seek out rooms for rent. In other words, I am willingly getting on that crazy merry-go-round I have been railing against the past couple of years...kind of. I still believe---deeply---what I believe: When you rent you are investing in someone else’s future. When you agree to a mortgage you are throwing yourself into a prison of debt. Cities are just...crazy, with all the noise and people being in a rush---I still believe in those points. I believe them but after a year and half of looking for land I understand that where I want to buy land will realistically be about three times what I have saved---at least.

Why don’t you be more flexible? You can still get cheap land in (name of state).

Two reasons: Where I plan to buy land or a fixer house is between where my parents live. The area is home: I was driving back from Oregon, coming down Interstate Five, and when the highway leveled out into the Central Valley I was reminded that the upper valley is home. The desert is home, too, but not the same as the Central Valley. We don’t choose who we fall in love with just as we don’t choose where home is; home is a feeling.

Maybe you understand this; my book The American Outback is all about this conflict or internal debate or whatever this is. I don’t need a fancy place, I’d be fine with a cabin or a single wide mobile home or a micro condominium, but I need a place to keep my books and have strong wi-fi and cook; I really miss being able to cook. I miss dressing fashionably and going to karaoke and poetry open mics.

I also miss having access to a bathtub on a day to day basis.

But I also want to be able to leave “civilization” whenever I want to just run away to nature for a few days or a couple of weeks.

Yeah...realistic, Izaak, because you can have it all. (rolls eyes)

You know, I believe you can, but at a much smaller scale. Right now, I am looking to get a job at a well known subscriber based warehouse sort of big box store because I hear they treat their employees well and pay competitively. I’ve begun researching FHA loans and it seems that, on this track, I could begin apply for a mortgage at some point next year and----

Wait...what about all you said about hating debt? Was that just...complete bullshit?

No. My ultimate goal is still to own land with like minded people. I was thinking Oregon but, honestly, Oregon is too damn cold. And returning from there I was reminded where home is, imperfect as my home is---

#cuejokesaboutcalifornia

Maybe next Spring I will be sick of being in a town, buy a box truck, kit it out, and flee the city again. I’m just dipping a toe in, you know? A toe that needs a little place where I can cook and have all my books out...and a bathtub; maybe I just need a truck big enough for a bunch of bookshelves and a bathtub.