I moved out of my Vancouver apartment in November. The rain had already settled in, and my suitcase had to fit three years of life.
Here’s what stayed in the city, what made it into storage, and what boarded the plane.
The Neighborhoods That Held Me
- Mount Pleasant mornings. Matchstick coffee, a quick sketching session, and the walk to the Fortinet office.
- Kits beach resets. Cold water dips between release cycles kept my nervous system honest.
- North Shore trail runs. When the sprint backlog got loud, climbing into the forest reset priorities.
Packing as a Systems Exercise
I gave myself a single carry-on and a 35L backpack. Everything had to support the next six months on the road.
- Work kit: MacBook, mechanical keyboard, noise-cancelling headphones, and a compact monitor arm that clamps to most desks.
- Meditation kit: Travel zabuton, incense sticks, and the Headspace offline pack for long flights.
- Adventure kit: Trail runners, packable rain shell, and a Polaroid camera for analog journaling.
The rest—furniture, cooking gear, winter coats—went to friends or Craigslist. It felt good to leave the heavy items with people who will use them immediately.
Designing a Portable Routine
My checklist for the next destination (likely Otaru, Japan):
- Coworking spots with late hours
- A nearby bouldering gym
- Seafood markets for fresh, simple meals
- A Zen or mindfulness community within transit distance
If those are in place, the rest of life tends to click. Vancouver taught me to design routines deliberately; now I’m ready to transplant them into new cities.
Next stop: Otaru, Japan, then maybe Chiang Mai. If you have favorite neighborhoods or meditation centers, reply to say hi.