Do you own them, or do they own you?

We were going to bicycle from Colorado to California.

We had new bikes in the $200 range. If you know how much a decent bike costs, you realize that's laughable! We got our "Bob" to trail our few belongings behind us. We already had a cheap tent and good sleeping bags. Having finished up the Spring semester of my freshman year of college, I got a job in Denver and biked to work every day while slowly selling off the sparse belongings which a twenty-one-year-old possesses.

Text books sold for the best prices. The other books I got a few cents to a few dollars for, but the change added up and was stashed away into our travel funds. We put up a flyer announcing the sale of everything in our apartment. The wall hangings, including my beloved "Blue Nude" by Picasso went in one purchase. The dining table, the couch, the coffee table, book case all sold to people in our complex. We found a pawn shop that paid a fair price for our videos, clock radio, the toaster, the blender, and other small electronics. I invited friends and family to take what they wanted, and we made many trips to the thrift store to return many of our belongings to their original home. My collection of CDs sold to a reputable used music store, except for a few exceptionally beat-up and much loved ones. After I sold those final scratched up CDs that held such meaning to me, I came home to our empty apartment and I cried. For Guns N Roses, Metallica, Peter Gabriel, Jewell, Pearl Jam... For the memories each song held, for my youth that the music symbolized. That's when I got my first glimpse of what letting go meant. What sacrificing everything you own for the freedom of travel entailed.

When I was done mourning my lost belongings (about 15 minutes later), I was cleansed and excited and no longer tied to the things which I'd been dragging around with me for years.

The materials collected for years had turned into cash for our trip. I stood in my vacant white apartment with the Bob on the floor in the middle of the living room and the bikes peaking in from the back balcony, happily dreaming of where that $1000 would take us.