Sean Brown is one of my long-time, most inspirational, and all-around closest and absolute best friends. When I first met him as a junior in college, he’d just returned from a stint living in San Diego (or was it Los Angeles?). In the six years since, he’s moved to Portland, OR and back and then out there again, where he’s working on a book he’s been dreaming up for years.

I admire his get-up-and-do-it-ness, and when I started chewing on the idea of packing up and moving out of town for awhile, he’s one of the first I consulted. Always a supporter, he let me boast victories when things started falling into place and allowed me to freak out when something wasn’t happening the way I thought it should. Around Blog Swap time, we decided to unofficially swap and he sent me the following piece. But then I got a little selfish and held on to it, knowing I wanted to post it after I’d talked about moving, feeling that the context would mean more. Today’s also my last day of work in this office, so these sentiments seemed most appropriate now. Enjoy! It’s something of a cross between his own experiences and the advice he’s sharing as I go forward.

Thank you, Sean. You are forever my reckoner friend.

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It will start out as a vaguely crazy idea, just something to mull over, something to chew on. Something to dream about. The world is your oyster, the world is my home. Because you’ve always suspected that there was something wonderful and fantastic that they weren’t telling us about, out there somewhere just beyond the horizon. Beautiful possibilities available to those of us with the daring and the imagination to go out and find it. Something they could never show us, something we’d have to find for ourselves.

When you take the train west, watch how the earth flattens before it rises, how the music shuffles before it settles, how they twitch in their seats before they relax. Consolidation is the key. You can give away 75% of your stuff. This is a fact. You do not need fifteen pair of shoes or six party dresses. Jeans and t-shirts are key, because they are versatile, and also easy to maintain. Hoodies and sweaters are comfortable, but bulky, and must be considered with keen eye towards space maximization. And even after you’ve packed everything you own into two large suitcases and two backpacks for the cross country adventure to San Diego or Portland or Boston; you’ll find that you’ve still packed way too much. And not nearly enough. And definitely not what you need at right this very moment. But you can always send for it later. And it turns out that comfortable walking shoes are worth more than their weight in gold.

Problems will arise. Hiccups and catastrophes will become your intimate friends. You will truly come to understand and embrace the Serenity Prayer.

But, you will keep your wits about you, and you will become God’s Own Champion of the Back Up Plan. Brilliant and inspired back up plans made up on the spot and executed to perfection. Back up plans that make other’s carefully laid plans seem desperate and ill-advised in comparison. You will do this with a smile on your face, because you are doing what you want to do, you are following your dreams, you are the one who friends can point to with envious admiration. You will explore and you will investigate. You will get lost on the cross-town bus to some obscure attraction that will turn out not to be that cool anyway. However, you will make two new friends on the trip and consider the day to be a raving success. You will mispronounce local proper names, and you will be corrected. Within a week or two, you will be correcting others.

You will find that local coffee shop where they smile at you and don’t care how long you sit and type, and you will immensely grateful for their hospitality. You will be broke, but you will still tip them well. You will tell your friends back home that you are having the time of your life in Portland or San Diego or Boston, and eventually you’ll start to believe those words yourself.

Because you are having the time of your life. You’re being young and fun and adventurous. You’re being clever and brave. You’ve quit talking and dreaming and longing, and you’ve started acting and being and doing. It’s not always a smooth ride, but then again, what part of life is ever smooth? And would it be nearly as much fun without the struggles?

You will smile and be happy. You will be young and adventurous. You will do what YOU want to do.