Philippines

The Philippines is at fault for my current lifestyle. The part I can't explain is standing somewhere in this country on what was supposed to be one of my last days there, and understanding with total clarity that I'm not going back to the life I had before. Not as a dramatic revelation. More like checking the weather and realizing the season changed. The world is genuinely beautiful. People are genuinely kind. You can live well, eat well, move through extraordinary places surrounded by people who are happy to see you, and pay a fraction of what it costs to sit in Sacramento doing nothing in particular. That math doesn't unhappen once you've seen it. In March 2025, somewhere in the Philippines, I made a decision: keep going. No fixed plan. No return date. Just movement through the world the way humans did for thousands of years before collectively and rather recently deciding that was not responsible behavior. I came back twice more after that. Stayed long enough on one trip to get a photo ID card, which is what happens when you overstay past sixty or ninety days and have to deal with your visa situation in person. Still worth it. If you go and stay more than a couple of weeks, you'll understand what I mean. Stay a month and you'll understand why I kept coming back.