Claudia Pantani
West Footscray; early Spring 2017; Interior, night.

Of nomads, fridges and spinning heads

Quit your job – suddenly goes my soundtrack, bringing me back from a long pause staring at the computer screen, handing me my first line of this ramble on a silver plate. Funny how my mostly instrumental ambient playlist is now speaking to me:

Quit their money
Leave their places
Slam the door
and don’t come back

Yup, the woman is right.

She knows that one big downside to my nomadic lifestyle is the putting up with shitty and barely paid jobs just to get by.

Traveling is about growing. It grows under your skin, it forces you to grow and it grows with you. If you’ve been doing it for a while, chances are you are all wrapped up around your routine of constant change it’ll probably take your mind a second to articulate that vaguely uncomfy feeling, you know, the one right in the middle of your chest.

Eventually though the time will come for you to get thirsty on a random night, head toward the fridge, reach for the orange juice bottle and get hit by the epiphany that embracing the unpredictability of a traveling life didn’t save you from developing a pattern. Maybe you should review – or try to remember – the reasons that first made you start this journey. Perhaps you should come up with a whole new set of reasons.

But you don’t want to do it now, not this late at night, not with a glass of juice in your hand. Sadly though, the beauty of mind inquiring is that once you awaken it there’s no way back.

So please sit down, relax and enjoy watching your head while it spins.

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Claudia Pantani is an Italian wanderer currently based in Melbourne. She loves writing, performing contemporary dance and physical theater, and teaching yoga.