The Pleasure of Not Chasing the Next Thing

How to stop waiting for life to begin and start living it today

Photo by João Ferreira on Unsplash

For as long as I remember, I wanted to go somewhere.

• When I was in school, I hated living in my country (Russia). I wanted to move to the United States where I thought ‘real life’ is and where ‘normal people’ live.
• When I went to college in the States, I missed home. So after 7 months I dropped out and went back to start a business in Russia. Now I thought Russia is where ‘real life’ is.
• Then I wanted to move to Italy (because my then-girlfriend wanted to go there). I didn’t think about anything, I just wanted to follow what I thought was love. It wasn’t.
• Then I wanted to move to London, but didn’t get accepted to London School of Economics. Too bad.
• This year I spent 6 months being abroad: traveling around Europe. I just wanted to go somewhere, and couldn’t stand the thought of being in one place for too long.
• Eventually, I ended up being in London. And even though this is what I wanted all along — I am living with the love of my life, doing something I deeply enjoy — I am still making plans for the future. Where I’ll live afterwards, in 5 years or so. Maybe it’s Canada. Maybe it’s United States. Maybe it’s…