(2016 - 2024)
Celebrating 8 years of freedom
Laptop Portraits
So I’ve been on the road a while - a few years honestly. Since I have started the YouTube channel mid 2016, I took almost every opportunity possible to be out there somewhere - eventually - this took me to immigrating to South America permanently.
So - what do I think of South America, namely Peru. Well - I don’t know. I just kind of ended up walking the earth a lot going from place to place and eventually found myself - found my core..though to people I must have looked half asleep just pottering away, writing - constantly blogging. Making videos for the YouTube channel. Seeing clients online.
The whole world that I have made revolved around me and my laptop, my social media - my world.
In a sense it was kind of hard to go from having a home or a context - but that honestly just took a few months to transcend. Though the hardest part was being alone for many years - with nothing but the breeze, the beach or some nature, and this amazing device that I’m so happy exists today.
What can I say - I have been on the road a lot. I have travelled most of the time that I could and have definitely became - better off for it. But my mind has changed. The little laptop device rules my universe - or has done for many years. And now that I’m not so tied to it - I suppose I can say that without my internet and social media addiction I wouldn’t be here - and would not be who I am today.
So what did it give. It gave a quality of life I could not have ever imagined living in Australia or New Zealand. It gave me many friends and acquaintances around the world and mostly it gave me a sense of - being able to be anywhere and do anything I liked.
I would just station myself at a nice cheap (very cheap usually) hotel, go to a few cafes or restaurants, hook up to the wifi - and there I was - sitting…for hours sometimes. Just as I’m sitting here now writing this very post.
Laptop portrait today - 2 July 2024, Cafe Suchiche, Tarapoto, San Martin, Peru (writing this article for you)
I can’t imagine being born a few years before or after. As I feel grateful to be just in time for this revolution - and yeah - before 2020 covid, it was so great - for about 3 and a half years to just - walk around. Take off somewhere. Walk - see and sometimes just get a nice sense of the universe outside of the western life, outside of the box, the supermarkets and so on.
I cannot say how grateful I am to have left the “First World” equation and how very happy I am that it never happened to me. Most of it didn’t happen to me: marriage, children, mortgage, public life, all of that. It never happened to me.
Going out clubbing didn’t happen, being proposed to never happened, having a tight group of friends never happened. But - laptop happened. And I am so very grateful I got it.
So far in 2024 - I have now 3. The other two broke. My first one I bought in 2016 (2014 MacBook Air) - it finally died in 2023 after some operations. The other one I bought in Mexico in 2019 (2017 model) that kept on cutting out throughout. Then I finally got a very basic 2015 model here in Peru - second hand ofcourse in 2024. And - it works. I’m grateful. They all look the same. I like the plastic cases that snap on - the ones that look like marble. I like writing and eating. It was and probably will always be - one of the greatest pleasures in my life. To be able to walk around - doing this.
Amen
Polina
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