I was never the kind of traveler that Matthew Kepnes was. He was a backpacker who traveled the world for ten years, drinking and partying. But, Ten Years a Nomad: A Traveler’s Journey Home is worth reading even if you’re not the type to appreciate a partying lifestyle. What Kepnes does capture in his book is the philosophy of why some of us want to take off and leave home.
Kepnes, known as Nomadic Matt, spent ten years traveling the world, although he did return home to Boston now and again. He returned home after eighteen months when he was tired of traveling, and realized he could go home. But, he didn’t see himself working a 9-5 job. Instead, he spent 3,000 nights in more than ninety countries. He stayed in hundreds of hostels in a thousand different cities. His only purpose was to travel as a nomad, with no fixed destination. Oh, he planned his trips before he started, but he was willing to let go of those plans if another location or a new friend called to him.
In 2004, Kepnes told his parents he was quitting his job to travel around the world. In his opinion, too many Americans choose safety over risk, and are unwilling to give up a paycheck to discover other lands, and meet other people. Even Kepnes had a hard time, though, letting go of his plans. He had to learn to “grab hold of serendipitous moments”.
After four years of travel, Kepnes decided what he wanted to do was be a travel writer. He took the time to learn to blog, set up a website, and handle the business. Eventually, his business caught up with him. A blog with a million readers became work, and he was torn between appreciating the travel he set out to do, and spending time working on his site. But, it took years for him to decide he was ready to quit the road and settle into a home.
Whether a particular traveler’s lifestyle is yours is almost irrelevant in a travel memoir. And Kepnes’ book doesn’t actually dive into the places he traveled. He concentrates on the lifestyle of a young nomad, rather than the locations. But, each traveler brings a philosophy and viewpoint of travel to their writing. Kepnes’ book is actually a story of his growth, and how the experiences of meeting new people and traveling on his own forced him to be more independent and more outgoing. Ten Years a Nomad is a story of personal growth even more than it is a travel memoir. It’s the changes in Kepnes, not the sites he visited, that makes this book interesting. And, I know just which family member will appreciate this book as a gift.
Matthew Kepnes’ website is NomadicMatt.com
Ten Years a Nomad; A Traveler’s Journey Home by Matthew Kepnes. St. Martin’s Press, 2019. ISBN 9781250190512 (hardcover), 226p.
*****
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