I once met a guy named Tennessee.
Obviously, one of the first questions I asked him was, “Were you born in Tennessee?”
He responded, “Ha ha (it wasn’t a sarcastic laugh, just one that you could tell was totally manufactured solely for this obnoxiously repetitive question), born? No. Conceived? Yes. But not in the Tennessee you’re thinking of.”
“Is there more than one Tennessee?” I thought to myself.
In fact, there is, and this man was proof of it. He was conceived in Tennessee, California.
Now, why his parents decided to name him after the location he was conceived in? I don’t know. I think I just left it at Tennessee for fear of the unknown.
~
I met Tennessee when I was staying at a hostel in Naples, Italy. He was a guitar-playing, solo-traveling, free-spiriting kind of guy, and if there’s one thing to know about someone willing to bunk it with complete randos in a shared room, it’s that they’re usually a pretty interesting person (or they’re just looking to save a few bucks… hard to tell).
Tennessee was looking for both— that I do know— but truth be told, his name was the least interesting thing about him.
When I sat and talked to Tennessee about what he was doing in a hostel in Naples, Italy, he told me something that I, still to this day, think about from time to time.
Tennessee loved music. He loved anything his ears could feast on, sounds included. This guy was backpacking around the world, and the only other thing he was carrying alongside his clothes was his guitar.
Which was vital to him. Like how our bodies need water. How the Earth needs rain. Tennessee needed music.
One day, years before Tennessee started backpacking, he had an idea to make a soundscape of the Earth.
“Taylor, what the heck is a soundscape?” you may ask. (I myself had no idea what a soundscape was.)
He proceeded by telling me:
“You’ve seen the difference between various cities and countries and continents, right? Like you’re able to visualize the differences because you’ve seen pictures, videos, movies, etc. Well, have you ever heard the difference between various cities and countries and continents? Probably not, which is why I want to capture the sounds I hear in each city I go to and create a mashup that people can listen to. The sounds of each place are, in my opinion, just as important as the visuals.”
How freaking cool? Not only did he came up with the idea to create a soundscape of the Earth, but he was also actively executing it.
~
I share this story because every time I travel, even if it’s to another state or city within the US, I stumble upon a person who’s done really “outside of the box” things with their life. I’m always amazed to hear such adventurous stories.
But more than that, it helps me redefine the perimeter of my “box”. I’m able to question why I have put up all these boundaries, which in turn, helps me knock them down a bit— put into perspective that the human mind is the only limit there is.
So, this post has no deep meaning, no insightful message. I wrote it simply because we often forget that anything we want is possible. Anything.
It’s not everyday you meet someone who traveled around the entire globe without using a plane and only headed east until he got back home, but then I remember that if I can meet a man named Tennessee who backpacked alone for ten months around the world, eat pizza in pizza’s birthplace of Naples, wine taste at a vineyard on Mount Vesuvius, and eat a chocolate croissant for breakfast as I board a flight home, all within three days, then really anything is possible.
Go after it. You know what “it” is. You do.
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