What’s the end goal?

That was my uncle’s reaction to seeing pictures of our tiny house for the first time. His hands were tossed up, his gaze unfocused and confused. He was at a loss.

Both Sean and I have been asked some form of this question ever since we decided to quit our jobs, sell all of our things, and move into a tiny house. None of those things happened all at once, and all of them go against the grain. Which meant that a lot of people questioned our motives along the way and couldn’t understand why we wanted to live differently. We understood early on that in choosing a different path, we would attract the scrutiny others.

I’ll admit, to be posed with such a blunt question—in essence, why did we do this?—I felt nervous. To top it off, my uncle is kind of an intimidating person. He’s not the type to compliment something if he doesn’t like it, or feign agreement if he has a different opinion. He’s never shied away from putting me on the spot just because it might make me uncomfortable.

He wasn’t trying to be a jerk. He just didn’t get it. This path we’ve chosen not only differs drastically from the life he’s lived, but also from the one Sean and I were building up until about two years ago.

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We want to live without the burden of a mortgage. We want to learn to be content with less stuff. We want to be able to hitch up our little house and tow it across the country if we choose to. We want to work part-time or for less money and not feel like we’re always struggling. Ultimately, we want to live simply, so that we can continue to set goals and be free to pursue them.

I could have given all of these reasons, and probably a lot more. But the point wasn’t to describe in detail what we wanted for our future. In asking the question, he’d given me the opportunity to show some confidence in the decision we’d made, and to stand by it, even against someone who didn’t understand it.

In the end, the answer I gave was the simplest one: “To live. Just to live.” In that way, I realized, we’re not so different from everyone else on this planet, just trying to live one day at a time.

My uncle accepted my answer and we moved on. He probably still thinks we’re crazy—or silly or stupid—but at least he knows we have a goal and we’re confident in pursuing it.

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