After decades of misadventure and a perilously close encounter with the abyss, I decided to make a radical change and start a whole new life. At 57, with no job, no pension, and no expectations, I distilled my existence down to a single backpack and walked away from it all.
These pages are field notes from the other side of that decision.
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WATCH: Too Close To The Edge
Click image to watch video When your life is just sort of humming along down the middle of the road and then all of a sudden everything goes sideways at once, and that is putting it mildly, you can get pushed to the edge – close enough to see the abyss below… Watch the videos.
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How I Got Here
The monologues continue. In this video I finally crack the nut open and share a little bit about what pushed me close enough to the abyss to make the decision to make a radical change in my life and walk away. Spoiler alert: A girl. Money. Job. Health. You’re right. What else could it be.
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Walking Away
by William Snyder Ban Kan Throm, Thailand April 23, 2026 Beyond the checkpoint, I’d settled into a seat along the wall where floor-to-ceiling windows stretched past the coffee shop before I noticed … before the weight of actually being there settled on my chest. Sunrise dancing off the tarmac. A faint smell of duty-free perfume.
More field notes, shorter dispatches, and fragments from the road live on Substack.
