Mongolia

Before arriving in Mongolia, I connected on Instagram with an American named Breanna, who had moved to the capital, Ulaanbaatar, after falling in love with the country. She generously spent the day showing me around the city before taking me out into the surrounding countryside. As we drove across the endless steppe, Breanna told me she loved Mongolia because it reminded her of the Wild West and made her soul feel free. We passed nomadic herders tending their horses, traditional gers dotting the landscape, and miles upon miles of open wilderness with barely another person in sight. Looking out across that landscape, I understood exactly what she meant. There was a sense of space and freedom that I’d rarely experienced anywhere else in the world.

Mongolia felt refreshingly uncomplicated. Many families still live a nomadic lifestyle, moving with the seasons much as they have for generations. It reminded me that freedom isn’t always about having more. Sometimes it’s about needing less.