that title is a joke but i can’t believe you still clicked it lol
a quick note
it’s 11:35pm.
i’m somewhere in the middle of nowhere in Iceland, sitting in a camper van with a mug of herbal tea on the table while i write this.
wind is shaking the van so much that my tea keeps spilling, & there’s a downpour of rain clattering on the roof above my head.
there’s no wifi here, i’m eating more ramen noodles than any human should, & i’m stuck deciding if i should run outside to piss or just try to hold it in all night.
i’m having the time of my life.
ok, onto the newsletter:
every time i travel, i think of this article i read a while ago that talked about how every city/place tells you something.
so like, NYC says that if you’re not rich (or hustling to get rich), you’re doing it wrong. Paris says that you should do everything with style. Ibiza says to do drugs & catch every STI like they’re Pokemon.
there are probably mixed opinions about what each place says, but i think the general idea is pretty cool.
so it got me thinking: what does Iceland say to me?
if you haven’t been lucky enough to visit, let me give you a bit of context:
as soon as you leave the capital city, Iceland is basically just one huge canvas of untouched nature, connected only by a few roads & some tiny towns along the coast.
within a day’s drive, you can go from seeing 600m tall mountains, to endless fields of mossy volcanic rock, to black sand beaches, to hot springs, & to glaciers that could swallow any city whole.
this place is special, man.
so, it should come as no surprise that when i asked myself what message Iceland sends to me, it had nothing to do with the kind people or the expensive food.
in fact, unlike the other places i mentioned, the message Iceland sends would be the exact same if the population was 0.
it’s a simple one:
remember how small you are.
today, that message really hit home for me.
long story short, i meant to follow a trail that would take me to a waterfall, but i took a wrong turn & ended up approaching the foot of a glacier instead.
& ok, i knew that glaciers were big — i just didn’t know what ‘big’ really meant. (not a dick joke lol)
so i kept walking closer & closer until i was right by the edge of the glacier, & then i paused for a moment to take in the sheer size of it. (also not a dick joke)
only one thought crossed my mind:
“if a tiny chunk of that ice broke off rn, i’d be fucked.”
there it was, not even 0.1% of the full glacier, towering 20m over me, standing where it has stood for thousands of years, & slowly carving its way through the mountains like they were made of Play-Doh.
& there i was, helplessly standing there in my little white hiking shoes, hoping that nothing would go wrong.
we aren’t just physically tinier than we think, we’re tinier than we think in every way possible.
that glacier was here long before i was born, & it will be here long after i die.
it will outlive my grandkids, their grandkids, & probably a bunch more of my ancestors after that.
my entire existence is nothing but a blip in the glacier’s timeline.
every worry i have, every memory in my mind, every relationship with every person i know, every dream i care about — everything — is nothing.
i am so, so small.
but for some reason, that thought brings me a feeling of peace.
why?
well, the odds of anyone remembering you 1000 years from now are slim to none.
don’t believe me? name one Phoenician. did you even know Phoenicia existed?
that’s not a trick question, but let’s think smaller.
can you tell me anything about your great grandfather, other than his name? what about his father?
maybe that’s unfair. so how about this:
what’s Alexander the Great’s last name?
we literally call him ‘the Great,’ but how many of you actually give a shit about him?
everything about us & everything we do will be forgotten faster than we want it to be. in fact, there might not even be anything to forget, since nobody is really paying attention to you in the first place.
that might make you feel sad, but i think it’s actually a good thing;
if nothing really matters, that just means you get to decide what matters to you.
i don’t think life has a true meaning, but i also don’t think it’s meaningless either.
life just is what it is.
time passes, & it waits for no one.
we get just 4000 weeks on this planet if we’re lucky. don’t waste them worrying about things that won’t matter a week from now.
think bigger, but still,
remember how small you are.
things i learned: travel edition
my go-to websites for cheap flights
i’m not sponsored, but i’ve used SkyScanner & Google Flights for all of my recent trips to see the best flight prices at different times of the year. pro tip, try to be flexible with dates & search by the month! i’ve saved thousands this way. i always use these sites but book directly through the airline, just to be safe.only. travel. with. carry. on. bags!!!!!
i heard someone say a while ago that the more you pack, the more things can go wrong on your trip. i agree. 99% of the places you go will have options to buy any essentials that you might forget, which means there’s nothing to lose by packing light — other than time waiting around at airports.how to travel well
i think the best way to see a place is to figure out how locals get around, & do that (ex. rent a bike in Amsterdam, walk or subway in NYC, drive in Iceland). then, instead of scheduling your day to the minute like a lot of people do, i’d encourage you to just pick 1 really cool thing each day, & spend the rest of your time exploring the area around it. “but what if something goes wrong?” tell me a good story where everything went according to plan. let life happen & loosen up a bit — it’s supposed to be fun.
cool stuff i found: also travel edition
the bag i use every day
it’s dead simple & way more durable than i expected. it’s also just small enough to use as a personal item on planes, which doesn’t count as a carry on! i’m going on 4 years with my Baggu Duck Bag now, & it’s still looking like new. if you don’t trust me, trust my girlfriend — she bought one a few months after me & still loves it. not sponsored, as always.a cool gadget to connect your bluetooth headphones to airplane tv’s
if you’re one of those weirdos who likes to distract yourself on flights instead of just raw dogging them, give something like this a try. not sponsored blah blah blah (do i even need to say it anymore?)50 years of travel tips from one of my favourite creators
Kevin Kelly wrote this article a while ago, & i find myself coming back to it before almost every trip i go on. worth skimming through at least once.
bonus: a song i like rn
i’ve been listening to Let Me Grow by threetwenty a lot. it’s like, smooth r&b vibes that go nicely with a night drive.
that’s all for now!
i know this edition was a bit different than usual, but i still hope you got something out of it.
my videos started getting pushed on YT again out of nowhere, which means if you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you just discovered my stuff.
welcome (:
it means a lot to have you here, & unless you want feet pics or something, i promise that i won’t let you down.
go do something this week today that your future self will be thankful for.
‘til next time!
~ liam (:
PS — i’m taking on 3 new people who want to work with me 1 on 1, completely for free, to help you get unstuck & start building a life you love. if you’re interested, just click here, fill in a quick survey, & i’ll reach out to you ASAP.’
PPS — here’s a pic of me that i like, taken in Vik, Iceland
