One of our goals is living by nomadic serendipity. We often say that we live in the time zone of Nomadic Standard Time.
Serendipity is what guides our routing, our adventures and experiences. We purposely avoid making plans to allow serendipity to point us to where we need to be. Sure, we set intentions – but we don’t get caught up in them, and remain agile to follow serendipity’s beacon.
serendipity |ˌserənˈdipitē| an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident
We believe that in a default state of mind, it’s too easy to let plans get in the way of amazing things happening. Making too many plans also sets you up for stress and disappointment when they don’t manifest. Allowing for serendipity pretty much guarantees joy and adventure.
The Serendipity Challenge
We’ve told many a story of how serendipity has played a large role in our lives. From chance encounters, awesome unexpected things happening, last minute opportunities and our biggest leap of serendipity a year ago of selling our Oliver trailer leaving us homeless without a plan.
Now it’s your turn to share with us.
Share with us your best story of serendipity in your life. When have you let go of plans and schedules, and embraced what is present around you? What amazing things happened that wouldn’t have otherwise? What did you discover?
If serendipity has been lacking in your life – take a read back through our past Serendipity Challenge to help set yourself up for making plans to not make plans.
The Contest – Deadline: June 22 (entries now closed!)
When we last proposed a serendipity challenge, we didn’t offer a prize. This time we are.
One of our stories of serendipity was when we were parked in San Francisco in the fall of 2010 with no plans, and in desperate need of a change of pace. And lo and behold, and opportunity to sublet a cottage in the US Virgin Islands landed in our e-mail box. It took us just a few hours to say ‘YES!’ and completely shift gears to live island life for 5 months.
When we got to our new winter home, this was the sign at the base of our street:
You just really don’t clearer signs that you’re in the right place.
We recently decided to have some smaller Serendipity signs made based on this photo. They are 4″ in size, and made of metal.
The winner of this contest will receive one of our signs, to always remind you to allow serendipity into your life. We’ll ship it to wherever in the world you are.
The Rules:
1) Submit your serendipity story to us by:
Post your story to your own blog linking to this challenge post and post a link in the comments (we’ll include your post in a compilation listing at the end of the contest) .. or..
Leave your story as a comment to this post .. or …
Make a video, post it somewhere and post the link in the comments
If you’re not comfortable sharing publicly, then send it to us privately at us@technomadia.com (however, if you win – we’ll want to share at least some context of it).
2) You must submit your story by June 22, 2012 – the one year anniversary of us finding our bus after we took our largest leap of faith in serendipity yet.
3) We’ll judge by the story that inspires serendipity the most. We reserve the right to pick multiple winners, because we’re really really bad at choosing favorites.
We’ll do a compilation post sharing the winner(s), and linking to all the posts submitted to us.
So… what’s your serendipity story?
Entries are now closed – stay tuned, we’ll be announcing the winners soon!
I was living with my son and an ex-girlfriend in what I wouldn’t call a bad relationship, but one that was obviously not working for either of us and we were both just too afraid or uncomfortable to admit it to one another. The three of us had been traveling full-time for over a year in an RV, and were currently spending some time in Marathon, one of those miniature towns in West Texas that can only even support a bar or restaurant to a once per year spring break extravaganza that somehow keeps the town floating for the remaining 50 weeks out of the year. The sun was constantly on, desert winds made making fires in the RV Park’s outdoor fireplace easy, rent and just about everything else was cheap, and life was exceptionally good. Though I personally wanted to keep on moving on, we began to put down roots, and just happened to be doing so at a time when there were several other late 20’s / early 30’s kids hanging around for one reason or another. Friendships were blooming, and though the relationship I was in was barely even smoldering coals let alone a burning fire at this point, it seemed as though we might call this place home for longer than expected.
It was all a bit of a shock to me, as just weeks prior we’d been discussing downsizing from our 28′ Class C RV to a little VW Bus. I’d been looking online but the ones I could find that were in good shape were either way too expensive, or weren’t campervans. Finally I found one in Longmont, Colorado that looked perfect…but the gentleman never got back to me.
I resigned the idea over to the land of “wasn’t meant to be” and began to succumb to the idea that we’d be holding tight for awhile in West Texas.
Then I received an email from an old friend in Colorado, having heard that I’d been all over the I-70 the previous summer and wondering why I hadn’t stopped in to say hello. I took it as an invitation (which it wasn’t) and handed the RV over to my ex completely, loaded up my son and a suitcase each into a rental car, and drove non-stop from West Texas to the Front Range of the Rockies. On my way up, I tried calling the fellow in Longmont about the VW Bus again, and finally he picked up the phone. I took out every last dollar I had in the bank and bought her, a 1978 Volkswagen Bus, Champagne Edition Riviera Campwagen (to be specific!) from the gentleman who seemed quite sad to see her go, though his days of peace, love and daily engine work had passed him by. The boy and I cleaned it up, fixed it up, and suddenly we were living a brand new life.
One where we were literally living at a minimum, a VW Bus is smaller than many regular vans you see on the road, and though we bought one set of utensils and a plate for each of us, we never amassed much more than what we could fit into our individual suitcases.
When I finally told the old friend, who I should note was actually a college sweetheart but, for various reasons of travel and life and circumstance, we had gone our separate ways over the past ten years, she came to visit and fell in love with the Bus as quickly as we did. I took her on a two week road trip to Northern California, she realized life in her perfect little mountain town was worth giving up for one where any little mountain town can be yours any new day of the week, and so we grabbed the lady her very own fork, spoon and plate and made a little room for her own suitcase. That was three years ago, and we’ve been together ever since (with a couple of extra babies in tow these days, too.)
It hasn’t always been a Sunday drive, that’s for certain, but though we’ve had plenty of downs, the entire experience has taught me to chase after things even if they don’t seem to want to be chased, and just how much two people can achieve if they just support one another in what they want to do. It sounds sappy but compared to the alternative, god, it’s the entire difference in life!
There is a regional burn called Serendipity happening in TN this weekend: https://www.facebook.com/events/457443954270415/
If you make it there, perhaps serendipity will lead you to the annual rainbow gathering happening in east tennessee the following week!
Wish we could.. but have some other important stuff up this weekend 🙂
Hi guys!
Ok, so I have been thinking about your challenge for awhile now, and it has given me some good food for thought. I was not going to actually write anything, but then tonight I realized what I would say if I did write something, so here it is 🙂
The Serendipity Challenge and The Pauper King
http://catholicnomad.wordpress.com/2012/06/20/the-serendipity-challenge-and-the-pauper-king/
Thanks for the idea! It gave me something good to think over.
Thank you so much for this challenge! In hindsight I realized that Serendipty is the reason we are able to be full-time RV’ers starting in August. You can see how Serendipity let us completely rebuild our RV in style in my blog post:
http://sarahkirkish.wordpress.com/2012/06/20/nomadic-serendipity/
When in doubt, say yes!
Sarah
Hey folks! I’ve posted my story of serendipity on my blog! Here’s the URL:
http://AdventureWithoutEnd.com/2012/06/19/serendipity/
Enjoy!
Tony
OK, so it’s not really my thing to respond to challenges like this, but we just had an experience that instantly made me think of you guys and your Nomadic Serendipity theme, so perhaps it was fated that I share this with you:
As you know, we just “moved” to South Dakota (hi, neighbors!), and as part of that we wanted to buy a small parcel of property with a legal street address (see our blog for full details on why: http://ourodyssey.blogspot.com/2012/06/domicile.html). While we had already lined up some other things in Madison and Sioux Falls, we had not yet selected a real estate agent.
En route to Madison we passed through Rapid City, and spent the night there at the Cabela’s store. We had planned to stay at Walmart and walk to dinner, but that Walmart has recently stopped allowing overnight parking.
We still needed dinner, so out came the scooters and we rode to the nearest decent restaurant, the Dakotah Steak House just across the freeway from Cabela’s. We had an excellent meal (I had the buffalo short ribs and Louise the walleye), and a pleasant and perky server, Kelly.
We seldom over-share with restaurant servers, but Kelly seemed genuinely interested in what we were doing and welcomed us to the state, saying our move might help to push the state population past the 1-million level. She asked if there was anything at all we needed.
We jokingly mentioned that we needed a Realtor in Sioux Falls, and she lit up — her dad is the long-time owner of a real estate firm in Sioux Falls, which he just merged with the local Keller Williams office. Serendipity — we now had the name and number of one of Sioux Falls’ most experienced Realtors. We called Dave while we were still in Madison, and explained what we needed.
Fast forward to our visit to our new estate attorney’s office in Sioux Falls. After wrapping up an hour-long meeting, we get in the bus, start the engine, and get ready to leave. Just then we notice, right in front of us, a temporary banner-style sign: Keller Williams Realty.
We had not actually figured on meeting Dave-the-Realtor, or even having the property search well under way while we were in town. But if this was, indeed, his office, it must have been fate (or serendipity) that had us parked right there and facing that direction. I shut the bus off and called.
Yes, it was indeed his office, and he was in and available, and so we spent another hour in the spot meeting with him and going over listings. By the end of the meeting we had enough listings in our folder that we decided to spend another day, rent a car, and drive around to see all of them, something completely unplanned.
The postscript to the story is that we drove back to his office the very next day in the rental car after seeing all the properties, and wrote an offer on one on the spot. This afternoon we learned our offer was accepted, just like that. All from that first serendipitous encounter with Kelly-the-waitress in Rapid City.
As I said, I immediately thought of you guys 🙂
-Sean
i’m so glad that you started this. i’m very much enjoying reading everyone’s stories about serendipity.
Serendipity — You can call it luck, good fortune or just plain meant to be, but I have always been impressed with this bit of what I like to call fate. If you listen to your intuition, serendipity instances increase tremendously. You’ll know if you are on the right track if your place in the world feels right. And if it does not, it is time to jump into perhaps the unknown and make some desirable discoveries by accident…
My favorite personal tale of serendipity begins July 22, 1994. I reluctantly agreed to go on my first and only blind date. The two setting me up already had a poor history of being match makers and it was not like I did not have a full dance card, but there I was at Applebee’s in Springfield, Missouri sitting across from the love of my life. I moved in with that blind date 2 weeks later and here we are 18 afterwards creating serendipitous moments all the time in our new full time RV lifestyle.
I’m still finding out how my story of serendipity will shake out. I’d spent a few years watching my skills atrophy at a regular 8-to-5 job, all the while trying to find a way out. I started taking development jobs on the side with an eye toward making my escape someday, when I got a call from a recruiter offering me a position at a consultancy in a nearby city. Thinking it would be the perfect opportunity to sharpen my skills on current technology, I took the position. In spite of the long commute, I was fairly happy.
Then one afternoon, out of the blue, the company flaked on me and I was out of a job. No explanation. They were happy with my performance, and they had no complaints. They did everything short of apologize. I was angry, and I made my feelings clear in the most professional way I could, but I was relieved in the end. My modest attempts at finding side-jobs had overbooked me so bad, I had a week where I got two hours of sleep per night. I’d begun asking myself why I had a conventional employer in the first place. Even during that last meeting, I got a voice mail from a client, asking me to do some work!
I decided that this was the perfect opportunity for me to quit the lame excuses and go for it. A serendipitous series of windfalls had left me with almost exactly the target savings where I’d “start thinking” about going independent. I decided to take the hint. Now, I work constantly, and I love every minute of it. I barely know what day of the week it is because weekends have no meaning for me. My young daughter is spending the summer at her house, instead of a daycare provider.
Things are still unsure, but my job is just as stable as the last one. I have a hard time seeing myself ever going back. Instead, I’m learning to let go of plans and open my mind to opportunity, following serendipity wherever I can.
Serendipity kept going through my mind this morning. It occurred to me that almost everything that’s happened to us in the last couple of weeks has had at least a helping hand from serendipity.
The story I chose to tell is about Pioneer Village in South Dakota where we happen to be parked at the moment. The stories and pictures are in my blog, The Secrets of Jillology. (http://www.jillology.com/1/post/2012/06/serendipityserndipitanaptitudeformakingdesirablediscoveriesbyaccident.html)
I consider myself a natural-born leaper…in fact hubby often jokes about the fact that whenever we face a big change in life he’s the one that’ll go to the edge, but I’m the one that’ll push us off LOL. So many great, serendipidous experiences to recount
Leaving home at 17 to travel to France -> I learned to speak French and met my first big love
Leaving UK after university to travel to the US (everyone thought I was crazy) -> started my career and allowed me to meet my soulmate
Following Paul to a job in Asia some years later -> allowed me the totally special opportunity to work in Taiwain for 2 years
Quitting my semiconductor career -> Got me into my passion of theatre and photography. Started a small company in both areas and enjoyed some good years doing that.
Giving it all up and going RVing -> Endless memories of places and people met along the way. Developed my writing.
And it’s not over yet!
Our serendipity story starts by moving to Chicago from Seattle on snowy Christmas Eve. Getting stuck in snow as we pulled out of the driveway should have been a sign. Waiting at the top of a mountain pass for 3 hours during avalanche control should have been the next. We pushed on to our new home and new schools, Jessica for her master’s degree and a bachelor’s for me.
We had everything from a new apartment to transfer credits arranged months in advance. I got to campus and got told that none of my credits would transfer meaning that my degree would take me twice and long and cost twice as much. Jessica’s program turned out to over promised and under deliver.
After five frustrating weeks in freezing Chicago we decided that the money spent and debt accrued on the two degrees would best be served learning the skills online and building our business from the ground up. We dropped out and went home.
Two years later this ”rash” decision enabled us to build a successful freelance business and online teaching job. The nature of our new business and our love for travel lead to the revelation that we could manage our clients and business from anywhere in the world, indefinitely.
Today, after 9 months on the road, we are successfully managing our clients and students while in the middle of a long drive south from Seattle to Argentina. We document our Shenanigans on our site LifeRemotely.com in hopes to show others that this lifestyle is possible!
ooooooooooo I hope we have one before the deadline. We are finally in South Dakota to set up our domicile state. I’ll be on the lookout for the next week or so. Love love love the sign. That was an excellent job of graffiti’ing
My serendipity story is Burning Man, Burning Man, Burning Man! I arrive, set up in the dark and a dust storm, pissed off, annoyed and angry at my job. I have a camp stove I don’t know how to use and a bag full of food I don’t know how to cook, thanks to my husband, but luckily I’ve packed PB and bread for the week. Lo and behold, the two girls camped next to me have no stove and little food but made cooking skills. Score! Then, I meet three people exactly my age who have quit their jobs and are pursuing their passions … and succeeding! The signs are there. I take down my tent in a dust storm all by myself, but far from pissed off and annoyed. I go home and promptly quit my job within a month and have been happily self-employed ever since.