Centralized to Decentralized

Hello Steemit! This is my official #introduceyourself post!

My name is River, I am a freelance Social Media Marketer/Community Manager within the crypto and blockchain space. I am a proud member of the #NewYorkCoin Team. I also travel full time in an RV.

Around this time last year, I was slowly dying under rows and rows of fluorescent lights in a cubicle farm large enough to supply a small county with enough [insert your favorite crop here]. It was huge, it was very corporate-y, but I had made it!

I made the discussion to leave my "Big Bank" job of 10 years to travel the country in an RV while I freelanced my way through life.

I’m an artist, a musician, a photographer, and believe it or not, a writer. I never pictured myself wearing slacks and working in an office. Come to think of it, I didn’t picture myself at all. I was always a very “live in the moment”, “don’t worry about tomorrow”, “fly by the seat of my pants” kinda gal.

I talk a lot of smack about my time at the 'Big Bank', mostly because I was extremely unhappy for selling my soul to The Man. But in all honesty, I learned a lot, not just about Finance but about myself and the ‘corporate’ world in general. I made some lifelong friends and got loads of experience.

But I knew I wasn’t created to sit in an office until I died.

It wasn’t until the unexpected passing of my father that I started to get really serious about an Exit Strategy. Not just from the bank but from the limited beliefs I had about myself, my life, the ability to make money outside of a 9 to 5, and the things I wanted to accomplish. Then I read a book that changed my life (who hasn’t?) I don’t remember how many times I read Jen Sincero’s “You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life” before I actually started making real, viable plans to change my story but once I did, things just started falling into place.

I made it very clear to the Universe that I did not subscribe to your typical rat race of waking up, dressing for work, driving to work, working at work for 8 hours, driving home from work, cooking dinner, eating, going to sleep, rinse and repeat. I wanted more out of this life I was given, not just a cozy job that guaranteed my financial security. I need experience, stimulation, and fresh air.

It did help that I had a very supportive (and smart) girlfriend at the time to encourage the dramatic life change we were both about to go through. I remember it like it was yesterday, we were at a camping music festival in the Ozark Mountains when we came up with the idea,

“Hey, let’s just sell everything and move into an RV with our 3 cats and travel.”

me (L) & Carrie at Hillberry Music Festival

As soon as we got home from the festival we immediately started Googling about the RVing lifestyle. Little did we know it was already a thing. Plenty of people were traveling while working online. So it was settled, we were in the market to buy an RV.

Because of our cats, we wanted something large enough to give them room to be cats. Once we started shopping around we quickly realized the kind of RV we wanted wasn’t cheap. After looking at what seems like hundreds of RVs we found a fixer-upper less than an hour away from where we lived that was within our budget! And “fixer-upper” it was.

Once we got the 36 foot Class A (driveable, think Bus) in storage, we immediately started renovating it. Because of prior neglect by the former owners, this baby needed a lot of love.

Here are just a few things she and I did, by ourselves, with no previous knowledge or know-how: ripped up and replaced the floors in the bedroom, kitchen, and part of the living room, took apart the “inoperable” generator to clean out the carb and install a new fuel line (this made it no longer inoperable), replaced part of the plumbing in the kitchen, replaced the water pump, installed new house batteries, and painted the entire interior. As a bonus we also installed solar panels, a composting toilet, (off-grid!) and a back-up camera.

Carrie taking measurements for our new floor

To say we put our blood, sweat, and tears into this project is an understatement. But alas our ‘move in’ date was fast approaching so it sort of forced us to really buckle down and get it all done.

It’s crazy what you can get accomplished when you stop using excuses and make a choice to improve your situation.

I was working for one of the biggest banks in the world and now I am a heavy advocate for decentralization. It's a little poetic.

Find me on Twitter! https://www.twitter.com/geekyriver
Follow my travel adventures! https://www.instagram.com/geekyriver
Visit my blog! https://www.livingdecentralized.com