My cousin Emma McGowan is a citizen of the world. Sure she grew up in Vermont, pays US taxes and is nominally a US resident. But she’s hardly ever here.
A few years ago she was living in Argentina, and then moved along to Chile, where she met her boyfriend Benjamin Earl Evans (another world citizen, ostensibly from Britain). I reconnected with them about a year ago when they lived in San Francisco for a few months. But it didn’t take them long to hit the road again, stopping off in Colombia and Guatemala — and then on to Bali where they both live now.
Are they independently wealthy? Touring the world for a year or two before they settle down and get real jobs? Nope, instead they’re building careers and working hard — yet without the physical roots such a task would have required just ten years ago.
Emma’s a freelance writer, and a darn good one. She writes for Startups.co, Bustle, Mashable and a host of other publications, and has carved out an expertise in both entrepreneurship and the intersection between human sexuality and technology.
Boyfriend Benjamin is a startup guy. They were in San Francisco while he nurtured his company through a local incubator, but then headed off again to grow it from various different locales around the world. His “where I’ve lived” page on Facebook also includes Guyana, Jamaica and Ireland — along with Emma’s destinations listed above.
Although wonderful folks, Emma and Benjamin aren’t terribly unique in their lifestyle choice. There’s a whole generation of mobile professionals under the age of 30 who live without borders, flowing to where rent is cheap, living is easy, and the nightlife is rocking (or somnolent — depending on preference).