I've been browsing this forum on and off for half a year now and just decided to post.
Here's a short version of my story:
I grew up in rural western New York. When I graduated high school I tried to get a typical minimum wage job, but could not get an interview anywhere. So I went to the local public college. I spent four years getting a degree in computer science, and on graduating last spring I moved to Silicon Valley for a job as a software engineer. Now I'm 23.
I like to live simply, although this sort of happened naturally -- I never suddenly decided to change my lifestyle. I go with no car and no smartphone. Living here it's quite possible to just bike, although I don't go many places. I'll rent a car for road trips sometimes. I could name all of my possessions. Perhaps I'll write up an inventory on here sometime and see if there's anything I can get rid of.
The cost of housing is extremely high where I live. I rent a bedroom in a house and save almost all the rest of my income. There's nothing that I would buy for myself if I had more money, so I am content in that way.
What I love most is going home to visit my family and friends that I spent the first 22 years of my life with, and being out in nature which I find incredibly beautiful. We live in such a beautiful world! Unfortunately while in college I was too busy working on my academic/career success that I pretty much ignored nature -- but once college was over I really fell in love with it.
Maybe some of you will enjoy my photos. Going home and visiting nature are difficult things to do given where I live now. I have to fly across the country to go home, and I have to drive through bad traffic to get out to nature. I have been taking advantage of being out west to visit lots of places out here that I'll probably never see again if I move back east.
I miss a lot of things about home. The people first, of course, but also the green summer, woods and creeks, clouds and beautiful sunrises and sunsets, real interesting weather and storms. The bay area in california has almost constant "good" weather with full on sunshine 3/4 of the time -- while I admit this is nice for being able to go outside everyday, it's not very interesting and seeing the same thing every day gets old. I enjoyed walking in the rain and snow. Anyway, I don't mean to complain.
I cannot imagine having a family in the suburban sprawl here. There's no wilderness for kids to play in like I had growing up. There are little parks and playgrounds, so I guess you can ride your bike and be out in the sun. But not much room for creativity, most of the stuff we did when I was a kid would get you in trouble here if it was even possible. Having to drive through crazy traffic to get anywhere would be rough too. But I digress. Suffice to say I don't really like the idea of living here the rest of my life. :)
I realize I'm extremely fortunate, and I don't want or intend to just enjoy my material success such as it is on my own. I have no more career aspirations. I got my "dream job" already, and I don't really feel the desire to climb the career ladder. (Not that I'd avoid promotion, but I won't compromise on anything else for that purpose, so it's not likely to happen.) I want to use my resources for something good but I haven't figured out what and I'm kind of afraid of making the wrong decision there, so the default thing is just to save and invest.
I don't know what to do next. I could live as I am now for another 20 years easily, saving lots of money and living a comfortable if simple life alone. Many people do that here. I certainly don't want that, so I will have to draw the line at some point and do something different even though it will mean cutting my income. I hope I muster up the courage to do that sooner rather than later. I think about moving back east sometime next year to be closer to home despite that it would set me back career-wise.
Maybe I'll pitch in on some of the discussions here, though I have more to learn than to teach, I think.
