XL - Still a Traveller

We are the decisions that we make.

When Rui Pereira, journalist for the Publico, handed Leonardo a copy of his new contract, he did so with a smile on his lips. After three long months in regime of semi-slavery, Leonardo had finally earned the right to be considered a permanent part of the team.

You’re a part of this machine now, on a permanent basis. The duration of your service: indefinite. You’re one of us.

            Leonardo, who was trying his best to smile, without great success, fiddled with the contract in front of him. So this is what the future is supposed to look like…

            December 31^st: The last day of the year. A reasonably big group of socially inadequate people waited for the bus that would take them, throughout the dark night, to Spanish lands. Leonardo was one of them.

            Having a good job is seen as a symbol of success in our western, contemporary society. No, it’s not even just a symbol. Having a good job is practically a nonnegotiable condition to even be considered a respectful member of society. After all, employment is the status quo of the middle class in our modern capitalist society. It’s a way to earn money for the middle class, and money is the master, it’s the lord almighty. Survival, freedom, security, health, beauty or dignity. For middle class dwellers, no employment means no money, which means no access to any of those valuable commodities.

            Obviously, this is not just about having a job. This is about having “a good job”. The better the job, the more money there is and the more the money the bigger the reputation. Now, not having a job, that’s a humiliation. If a job is money and money is dignity, those who don’t have a job don’t have money and therefore don’t have dignity.

            The problem is that a lot of young people these days can’t even get a job, and the majority of those that do get a job have precarious contractual conditions or re badly paid or both. Not only that, a lot of young people end up working jobs they hate just because they need to have some sort of job. Personal satisfaction is not always a real option for a lot of people. You get a job because you have to and that’s usually the end of the story.

            In Leonardo’s case, however, things didn’t have to be necessarily that way. After all, since his biological father died some years ago and left him a decent amount of money, he had been able to start paying for his own expenses. This had given him a degree of freedom that he had never had before and, among other things, had allowed him to delay, even if briefly, his “entrance” in the job market after graduating. At this point, that money meant that he could actually live without finding a job immediately. He could afford spending some time looking for his way in life instead of just diving into a conventional lifestyle.

            In fact, pressured by his family and his society to be “normal”, Leonardo had almost forgotten that he had the possibility to do things differently. This was until a Tuesday night when Alex and him met after work to drink the monotony of their lives away, like they did sometimes.

            Alex told him then: ‘Leo, if I had the money you have still sitting in the bank, just sitting there without doing anything, just picking up mold, I would take it out of the bank, quit my boring job and go somewhere cool to do something interesting with my life.’

            At the time, Leonardo took it rather lightly, laughing about it. But when he realized that Alex was actually for real, the idea started taking over his mind, slowly but steadily, until that a few days later that was the only thought on his mind at all.

            When Leonardo told Rui Pereira his decision he looked at him with a rather shocked expression stamped on his face. These days, with all the young men and women in the world practically killing each other for whatever decent jobs are available, he wasn’t expecting Leonardo to turn down his offer.

            ‘Leonardo, are you sure about this? I don’t know if I’ll be able to offer you this opportunity again any time soon…’

            ‘Yes Rui, I thought about this carefully and I’m sure I wanna travel the world and learn as much as I can about it before settling down. In fact, I couldn’t be any surer than I am. I appreciate the opportunity that you gave me though, and I’m very thankful to you for that.’

            ‘You’re welcome Leonardo. I hope you’re making the right decision. You know, when you first got here and started working for us I realized straight away that there was something special about you. There’s this look in your eyes, this thirst for knowledge, adventure, or something else that I can’t quite figure out. What I can tell you is, never lose that thirst, never become accommodated, when you do, that’s when life stops making sense… Good luck son’ he finally said, shaking Leonardo’s hand firmly. When Leonardo left his office Rui felt happy for him and wished he could find his place in the world.

            On December 31^st, at nine p.m. the bus left the Oriente bus station in Lisbon with Madrid as its destination. Leonardo was once more an explorer, an adventurer, a traveler. He had left behind his life as it could have been, as everyone had expected it to be.

      He left without a specific destination. He didn’t know where the road would take him after Madrid. His only travel-mates were pens and notebooks. Another chapter of his life had ended and a new one was about to begin. In the end, his true nature had prevailed. At least for the time being he wouldn’t become just another cog in the machine. At least for now, he would go on travelling.