Caught this on the Yahoo! interview conducted by Katie Couric hosting Ted Cruz. As another commenter pointed out, what an odd piece to pick out out of the almost one hour interview which spanned many a topics. Debate the point if you have issues with it but posting such a vacuous comment perked my interest so I clicked on Schrader's handle to see what's his deal.
He got angst. And a lot of it.
Based in Texas, Schrader runs a travel site (not really surprising) trekking the globe a few months a year. Pretty cool, honestly. But that coolness is cut short once the tone that comes across his bio and website hits you in the face.
The good news is that my intuition has (mostly) taken me down the right road: I quit my last “real job” more than four years ago, and have been traveling several months per year ever since. The better news is that I’ve used all the knowledge and insight I’ve gained to create Leave Your Daily Hell, a one-stop shop for anyone who wants to break free of monotony, see the world and start living.
....
It surprises some readers of this blog to learn that I am a (relatively) ordinary 30-year old, who grew up in a (relatively) ordinary family in the (extremely) ordinary midwestern United States. My success as a traveler and a blogger has been born of hard work, determination and yes, a little bit of luck, but I firmly believe that if I can do this, just about anyone can, and I hope my work inspires you not only to travel, but to begin living the life you want. Continue reading to learn more about how my site is organized.
His site entitled "Leave Your Daily Hell" explains a lot about his thoughts on normality and the average 9-5 job. Schrader, like many depressed young adults. exudes self-involvement. Let's count the cliches.
(1) "real job": Gotta have that in quotes. Of course a job is a job, eve if it's prostitution or playing pretend for a living, but not all jobs are made equal in numerous aspects hence the "not a real job" jab. Say, if I made money blogging compared to being a physician or being a successful accountant or engineer, I'd understand that my blogging "job" may be seen as inferior or "not a real job." I'm not sure what skills, besides writing and website development, a paid-to-write blogger would give over than of a physician or engineer. Such skills are needed and if technically sound and creatively acute the blogger can be a major asset in public relations.
(2) "break free of monotony," "start living": I presume this a response to whatever life Schrader left behind as noted in his bio. A good majority of those who aren't the travel business or entertainment work 9-5 jobs, and the last time I met with my friends who worked these 9-5 jobs they weren't the miserable sack that Schrader paints them to be. In fact, one of my grade school peers died last April in his sleep. He worked as a roofer - manual stuff. I don't believe he went to college. He was engaged. As I read his online obituary and the condolences written on his page, I learned that he was well-liked by his co-workers and the customers he interacted with approved of his personality. He was a hard worker and his work ethic was partly due to the fact he "wanted a better life for his fiancee" which he thought she deserved. I'm not sure if he ever traveled outside of the US, but that matters little given the words expressed on his obituary page. If he "broke free of monotony" and went the route of Schrader I'm not sure he'd gain the words that were left on the page.
Sure, I bet may 9-5ers want better hours, a higher pay and the "cool" factor that comes with more glamorous jobs, but they're living - their eyes did not broadcast they were dead inside - and they have dreams to travel as well with the allotted weeks they are given. I bet many would want to travel, to forget deadlines and to ditch the shirt/tie/pencil skirt for sandals, sunglasses and shorts; to ride an elephant in the jungles of Vietnam instead of being in a car on the freeway, but works need to be done and as unappealing a 9-5 job is it pays and forms communities. It's domestic, so I'm not surprised that modernity rejects it the way it does. But according to people like Schrader these people aren't "really living."
If we all were travel writers then the country would plummet because, let's face it, every other travel blog is practically the same - same vibe, same tone, same "leave your boring life behind!" rhetoric. It offers nothing truly new. Sites like Matador are downright amazing, and are a treasure chest for travel inspiration, but in the end they don't give any real insight to human nature or the world besides pretty pictures with an exotic cocktail in hand, or some HD picture with a stranger looking in the distant atop of a mountain as the sunsets. How not original. It's like people who wanted to be diplomats/translators but skipped all the technical and cultural training. Nomads aren't inspiring to me - they're very childlike in the very worse ways. How many travel channels are there on youtube? A ton. And many are interchangeable.
I feel that people like Schrader, despite his proclamation of "I crawled from the bottom to get here" talk that is ubiquitous among so-called entrepreneurs of his kind, are riding on the backs of the monotonous jobs and those that take space in those jobs. After all, he is trying to appeal to the 9-5er, at the same time make them feel animosity towards their cubicle or cash register, to hire him as a personal travel guide.
(3) "(extremely) ordinary midwestern United States" : As someone who is from the Midwest it's always amusing to see self-loathing Midwesterners. I'm also not really sure what "extremely" clarifies. Is there a spectrum of ordinary I am not aware of? Like ordinary, more ordinary, very ordinary and extremely ordinary? Maybe he means the suburbs or a small town. An American suburb in the Midwest has some similarities to the suburbs of the East and West coast; A suburb located two hours form the coast in California probably has the same vibe as a Midwestern suburb axing out the palm trees and year-round shorts. Granted the Midwest, thanks to the media & entertainment, is depicted as a boring place when compared to the Coasts. There's a grain of truth to this depiction. Topography isn't nearly as appealing to that of California or even Pennsylvania; beaches don't dot the Third Coast unless you're in Michigan, and these beaches are only open just a fourth of the year; Lake Michigan isn't the Atlantic or Pacific - surfing is limited. As for small towns? I quite like small towns in the Midwest. Some small towns are doing okay economically while some are part of the Rust Belt. It could be my curiosity for history, so when I look at places like Rust Belt cities and its surrounding area I don't look at it with dismal nor does any feelings of superiority comes up through my chest. I feel appreciation if not respect; these places want to survive, but due to various circumstances achieving economical prosperity is hard to come by.
It's clear that Schrader has no fondness of where he came from; there is bitterness his tone. It is as if he disappointed that his family and the Midwest were not "cool" enough. If you ask me, viewing his travel pictures, Schrader seems like the same miserable sack just with more passports stamps than before. As with most "left-my-job-to-live-my-life" aka travel writer/blogger their presentation, while at first intriguing, becomes questionable and their true-selves are revealed by how they describe the place/job they left in order to "live life." If they are indeed "living life" then their philosophy to "live life" is rather narrow, as ironic as that may sound.
Schrader's youtube post, his sexuality (guy's definitely a homosexual by his youtube vids) and his bio - and the way he talks about his past life - tells us a lot about him. More importantly his attitude tells us a lot about people who share similar attitudes.
So, no, Robert Schrader. You do not inspire me to live life "my way." I run on a different type of gas.
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