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At the not-very-tender age of 35, travel writer Bruce Northam hitchhiked America\u00a0from coast to coast one more time to bring awareness to the fact that it could still be done in spite of the negative P.R. the practice was receiving in the ’90s. By that time, Bruce had already been hitchhiking for two decades. His new book, The Directions to Happiness<\/a><\/em>,\u00a0is a lifetime of accumulated lessons given across his 30 years spent traveling in and out of 135 different countries. His “country math” was done reluctantly. As he told me, “Roaming the world should be a matter of art, not math.\u201d<\/p>\n Having been able to count this New York-based author as a beer-drinking buddy of mine for the last two years, I knew I was in for some good storytelling when I loaded his latest\u00a0book onto my Kindle. What I hadn\u2019t anticipated was an integral guide that offered a\u00a0thorough\u00a0narrative and a\u00a0compelling blueprint for finding\u00a0purpose and meaning as a modern nomad.<\/p>\n The earnest travel wisdom coursing throughout the narrative is the sort you can\u2019t get without spending a life on the road. Bruce is unafraid of alluding to his \u201cvicier\u201d days of youthful rambling, and he is unapologetic when he shares with his readers his fears the Internet culture might be fatally toxic to travel writing.<\/p>\n Bruce\u2019s mischief-making followed him well past the age\u00a0when most people in his age bracket\u00a0begin\u00a0dreaming about early retirement from the cubicles that could never hold him. He begins his narrative with tales from a childhood similar to the one led by Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes. He ends decades and 135 countries later, not owning a second home, but happy; still traveling, but settled enough to raise\u00a0his daughter and to care for his aging parents.<\/p>\n The Directions to Happiness<\/em> passes through a number of levels, from nodding wisdom to intoxicated hilarity. If you\u2019ve been anywhere, odds are you\u2019ll get to read about those places through Bruce\u2019s unique lens.<\/p>\n Here are five ways in\u00a0which the book makes a particularly\u00a0compelling read.<\/p>\n Bruce writes, \u201cNobody learns how to be a writer, nor a traveler. You make it happen.\u201d Three years on, I\u2019m still doing that, and at a certain point in the book, I stopped to take\u00a0serious note. Bruce\u2019s story is the story of a travel writer who made it. During the course of his three previously published books, he passed from varying states of financial stability, but he never gave up the fight \u2014 he was having too good a time.<\/p>\n \u201cWriting about travel won\u2019t win most fame or fortune, but it can send you and your pen to corners of the world that inspire alternative outlooks on life\u2019s choices.\u201d I read somewhere once that contentment is the measurement of having lived in a way that you\u2019re proud of. The message of the book is clear: Bruce\u00a0is certain he has made the right choice, and he knows he could never have found happiness by having lived any other way.<\/p>\n Bruce came to realize that a road well traveled and story well written were rewards of the highest rank. For me, this message is encouraging. Beyond encouragement, Bruce gives travel writers a lesson on how to be a travel writer while still providing\u00a0an\u00a0authentic voice. This is an important lesson today, especially given an Internet culture that seems to constantly be screaming: \u201cLook at me!\u201d<\/p>\n Throughout the book, he\u2019s keenly aware how travel writing is changing, and he\u2019s not thrilled that \u201c[t]he explosion of travel content creators, especially on the web, forever changed the game. Some, who never muddy their shoes, are simply rewriting press releases where nobody ever seems to get robbed, conned, injured or laid.”<\/p>\n If you would like to live off travel and writing, and don\u2019t want to contribute to international irresponsibility, this book offers an important viewpoint.<\/p>\n There are, in fact, right and wrong ways to travel. If you don\u2019t think so, guess where you fall? Beyond rarely productive carbon footprint calculations, there\u2019s a way to interact with locals where both the visitor and the visited come away better as a result of the meeting. Bruce interacts with locals as a grateful guest and offers the wisdom accumulated from these interactions.<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t spend time, enjoy it,\u201d a\u00a0musician in Mozambique once told him.<\/p>\n \u201cYour best teacher is your last mistake,\u201d he learned from a Shaman in Peru.<\/p>\n Part of entering into another person\u2019s world is fully leaving the world you\u2019ve left. Bruce\u2019s life on the road led him to see\u00a0first-hand how traveling changed when Internet-connected devices started filling everyone\u2019s packing list. This bums Bruce out. He\u2019s not preachy, but he simply wants people to know how much better their trips will be if they “[u]nplug every now and then.\u201d<\/p>\n With the permission of the administration, Bruce has waltzed into many an elementary\u00a0school around\u00a0the world and commandeered a classroom to serve as the student\u2019s guest teacher for a day. He has also spent time with orphanages and empowered NGOs around the world.<\/p>\n The lesson from this is that we don\u2019t always need to work with a charity to make a meaningful difference, but neither do we need to shun charities. Living itself lends itself to countless human interactions, which we can steer towards positivity or negativity.<\/p>\n This mentality should be central to anyone dreaming of making a difference abroad. It leads to an important starting question: \u201cAm I making a difference where I am right now with everyone I encounter?\u201d<\/p>\n Living out of your suitcase isn\u2019t always an endless adventure. Sometimes it\u2019s hopelessly dirty underwear and troubling parasites. Considering the downsides, which include irrational fevers in lands where medicine hasn\u2019t progressed much beyond the Middle Ages, the upsides must be truly marveling for so many people to consider a life on the road a dream life.<\/p>\n Living on the road teaches you there are quite a few of us out here, and while we all think our lives are awesome, we live them in defiantly different ways. When starting out, it\u2019s important to consult those who made it out on the other side sane and not living in a\u00a0cardboard box. Though I\u2019d be the first to defend an insanity plea from Bruce, he\u2019s certainly not living in a cardboard house beneath a bridge. Nomads, take notes.<\/p>\n If you\u2019ve ever read the complete works of any travel writer (or career writer for that matter), there comes a point in their career where their life philosophy progresses\u00a0from fluid to established and somewhat certain. This is when they can really begin to impart their own travel philosophy to those still in their formative stage.<\/p>\n Bruce\u2019s travel philosophy is a patient, non-judgmental one. He alludes to his wilder moments and reminds travelers to cherish each moment, place and person.<\/p>\n At one point, I stopped to reflect after reading the following passage: \u201cTraveling makes people feel better not just because of the escapades to be had in new horizons, but also because we\u2019re re-triggered to share our life story \u2014 and hear someone else\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n Living on the road, I take this fact for granted. Basically, everyday, I meet someone new, hear their 30-second elevator speech on who they are, and then I tell my own. I began to wonder: How\u00a0has this impacted the people I’ve met?<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n In his epilogue, Bruce writes about how\u00a0his biggest lesson compiling the book was the realization that a person living in one village for a lifetime often stumbles upon the same lofty wisdom that has taken civilizations centuries to realize.<\/p>\n \u201cSomeday we\u2019re all going to realize we\u2019re in this together,\u201d Bruce writes. The\u00a0road to get there may just be paved by those with worn soles because, \u201c[b]roadminded, non-political solutions to the continuous warfare creeping into every shade of our planet won\u2019t see the light until more travelers meet.\u201d<\/p>\n By Luke Maguire Armstrong<\/strong><\/a> \/ At the not-very-tender age of 35, travel writer Bruce Northam hitchhiked America\u00a0from coast to coast one more time to bring awareness to the fact that it could still be done in spite of the negative P.R. the practice was receiving in the ’90s. By that time, Bruce had already been hitchhiking for two decades. His […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":24050,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2049,1,2581,2578],"tags":[3249,1021,3250,3232,3251,19],"yoast_head":"\n1) The Directions of Happiness Should be Required Reading for Aspiring Travel Writers<\/strong><\/h1>\n
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<\/p>\n\u00a02) Read The Directions to Happiness\u00a0as a\u00a0Best Practices Guide to Cultural Travel<\/strong><\/h1>\n
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<\/p>\n3)Read The Directions to Happiness as a Guide on\u00a0Volunteerism and Sustainable Travel<\/h1>\n
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<\/p>\n4) Read The Directions to Happiness As a Guide to Modern Nomadism<\/h1>\n
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<\/p>\n5) Travel Philosophy as Found in The Directions to Happiness<\/h1>\n
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<\/a><\/span> ![\"Luke](\"http:\/\/theexpeditioner.com\/Images\/Googleplussmallround.png\")
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Luke Maguire Armstrong<\/a>\u00a0is the author of the intrepid travel collection The Nomad’s Nomad<\/a><\/em>. When he\u2019s not traveling or getting mauled by rodents in the jungle, he spends his time being rejected by girls in bars in Antigua, Guatemala. He broke his left ankle river dancing and his right ankle trying to impress the locals in Belize. Give Luke a guitar; he\u2019ll sing you a song. Hand him a whiskey; he\u2019ll tell you a tale. Give him both, and he\u2019ll give you something to drink about.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"