A Better Path

My life has been in a state of flux recently. At first, I resisted the uncertainty, but now I'm trying to embrace it. I thought I would try to keep a blog to chronicle my journeys, both external and internal.

So, welcome to #ProjectNomad.

My life changed significantly last August. My partner of nearly four years ended our relationship without warning and moved out, leaving me and our dog, Lucy, to rebuild our lives without her.

I was devastated. The breakup came at a time where I'd also experienced recent career and financial setbacks, and I didn't handle it well. I've dealt with depression my whole life, and after the breakup I dealt with it so poorly that I landed myself in the ER for psychiatric evaluation. I drank heavily and my diet went to shit. I gained weight, shut myself off from friends and family, and indulged in bitterness, self-pity and destructive behaviour, in the name of giving up.

This isn't supposed to be a motivational blog, necessarily; I don't know where this story ends. But I didn't give up, anyway.

Four months after the breakup, I moved out of the fancy condo in downtown Vancouver that I could no longer afford, and tried to embrace the setbacks I'd faced as opportunities for growth and change.

I put my belongings in storage, packed up my truck, and with Lucy riding shotgun, set out to see and do things that I never would have done had I remained in that comfortable, lazy and probably toxic relationship.

I also set out to work on bettering myself, mentally and physically; while I may have been bitter about how my relationship ended, from an objective standpoint, there were many things I could have done differently.

I know I am capable of being a better person than the man I was last year, and the year before that, etc, and #ProjectNomad is not only about seeing the world with my pup; it's about personal growth as well.

I see this blog as partly a travelogue and partly a record of my attempts to get healthier, physically and mentally. I write crime fiction as my day job, so you can probably expect a glimpse or two into the glamorous life of the working writer.

There will also be many pictures of Lucy. And train pictures, too; fair warning.

Anyway, we'll see how this goes. Feel free to follow along here or on Instagram and Twitter. And maybe we'll see you down the road somewhere.