Embracing Unconventional Freedom: Why I’m Choosing a Digital Nomad Lifestyle to World School My Son

There’s something liberating about choosing a path less traveled—especially when it’s lined with uncertainty.
As I sit here, my two-year-old’s toy truck resting beside my laptop, I realize that the only thing scarier than living outside of society’s norms is the thought of conforming to them indefinitely.

So I’m making a pivot—a bold, heart-led one. I’m choosing to step away from traditional expectations and embrace life as a digital nomad while world schooling my little boy.

🌿 Why Now—and Why This?

This decision didn’t come from impulse. It’s been quietly brewing, a slow rebellion against the script so many of us inherit:
Buy the house. Commute to work. Carve out two hours of “quality time” in the evening. Repeat.

Then one day, you look back and wonder where all that time went—how those fleeting years slipped through your hands like water.

I don’t want that.

Becoming a mother shifted everything. It made me question what success really means, what I’m modeling for my son, and what kind of life I want him to remember. In a world obsessed with having it all, motherhood taught me something simpler but truer—having it all isn’t about doing more. It’s about choosing better.

For me, that means choosing freedom over convention, experiences over possessions, and connection over constant productivity.

Stepping away from the familiar isn’t a rejection of stability; it’s an invitation to live fully awake.

🌎 What It Really Looks Like

This isn’t a Pinterest-perfect dream. It’s intentional chaos. It’s structure with space to breathe. It’s trading in the illusion of control for a life that feels alive.

Here’s what that looks like for us:

1. Creating a Portable Life
   My laptop becomes my office, my creative hub, and my freedom tool. Through consulting, teaching, and digital entrepreneurship, I’ll sustain our travels while building work around life—not the other way around. It won’t always be easy, but the trade-off—presence over performance—feels worth it.
2. World Schooling in Real Time
   At three, “school” for my son still looks like play, discovery, and wonder. As he grows, his classroom will expand—across cultures, languages, and landscapes. A walk through Havana will become a history lesson. Baking bread in Morocco will be cultural immersion. Learning Spanish won’t just come from flashcards but from conversation in bustling markets and playgrounds abroad.
3. Building Community Along the Way
   This journey isn’t about isolation. It’s about connection—finding other families living freely, digital nomads and worldschoolers who remind us we’re not alone in wanting something different.
4. Letting Go of Excess
   Minimalism continues to be my anchor. The fewer things I own, the freer I feel. Letting go of stuff means making room for presence, for creativity, for shared moments that matter more than anything I could buy.
5. Planning with Intention
   Freedom doesn’t mean recklessness. There’s a plan—savings, safety nets, and flexibility built into every move. Because choosing courage doesn’t mean abandoning wisdom.

💭 The Vulnerable Truth

This isn’t a romanticized story of palm trees and Wi-Fi. It will be messy. There will be tears, missed flights, unstable internet, and nights when I question everything.

But I also know this: discomfort breeds growth. I want my son to learn that bravery isn’t the absence of fear but it’s the decision to move anyway. I want him to see that stability doesn’t come from one address; it comes from knowing who you are and trusting the ground beneath your own feet.

🌺 Redefining What “Home” Means

This isn’t just about travel. It’s about dismantling the idea that there’s only one right way to build a life, raise a child, or educate a mind. Home isn’t a fixed point—it’s a feeling. It’s the sound of his laughter echoing through a new city. It’s our rhythm, our rituals, our roots and wings—carried wherever we go.

So yes, this path is unconventional. But so is choosing yourself after years of losing your way in other people’s expectations. So is raising a child to see the world with both wonder and wisdom.

I’m not chasing perfection anymore. I’m chasing presence.

This isn’t about escaping life—it’s about living it on purpose.

Here’s to freedom that’s felt, not just imagined.

Here’s to world schooling, motherhood, and the courage to build a life that’s authentically ours.

And if you ever decide to take this leap too, just know—we’ll be out there somewhere between a morning stroll in Kyoto and a siesta in Spain, learning together that the world is our classroom, and every chapter is still being written.

— Sia 🤍