Notebook of a Nomad

My Background

11/10/24

My name is Andrew Bergan and I grew up in rural Illinois. When I say rural, I mean rural. My closest neighbor lived a mile away (and he was my uncle). I’m 37 years old and I’ve always lived within a 2 hour radius of those cornfields that we call Bergan Farms. I spent quite a few years an hour and a half south of there in Champaign-Urbana where I studied civil engineering at the University of Illinois. I stayed in Champaign when I got a job working for the Illinois Department of Transportation building and designing roads for the traveling public. 

While driving from one roadway project to another, my life took an unexpected turn. There was a backup on the interstate and I was parked waiting for it to clear with everyone else. Unfortunately not everyone saw the traffic backed up and a semi truck driving 70 mph barrelled into the back of my car and crushed my Chevy Impala like it was a pop can. The car was quickly engulfed in flames as I sat unconscious in the driver’s seat. Thankfully a couple of nearby drivers and a state trooper were able to break open my driver side window and pull me out from the flames. Some flames came with though and as they laid me down on the grass median, one man had to use his hands to extinguish the flames that were eating away at my face. Two helicopter flights later and I was being stabilized in an ICU in Springfield, IL.

After spending 6 weeks in the hospital, 3 of which I am thankful to not remember, it was time to start rebuilding my life. That rebuild has included 27 surgeries over 5.5 years. The charred skin on my nose, forehead and scalp was peeled off through a process known as debridement and replaced with skin from my right thigh. I lived about 6 months without eyelids, wearing sunglasses at all times to hide the gruesome sight behind the lenses the best that I could. Recovery has been a long road. With plenty of twists and turns, And a few potholes along the way. 

After a lengthy legal process that lasted over 3.5 years, I got a cash settlement to try and help with the rehabilitation project known as my life. The process was intentionally long as the defense attorneys in these cases often drag it out hoping to make the victims desperate enough to either take a defense-friendly deal or kill themselves. I never became desperate enough to lay down and submit to their will. It was a very difficult process, even while living in a democratic controlled state where the laws are written to prioritize protecting the victims of corporate negligence over protecting the profits of corporations. My settlement provided me the resources I would need to try to build a new life after so much of my old life was taken from me.

When our world gets turned upside down, we have to make a choice. Do we try to rebuild our old life or do we try and build something new? I think we all faced that question when the dust settled after the COVID vaccine was finally rolled out. Some aspects of our lives would get rebuilt and other aspects would be abandoned and left in the past. After a brutal 3.5 years of litigation and COVID finally subsiding, I took the opportunity to rebuild my life somewhere new to get a fresh start. Chicago seemed like the obvious choice so I moved 2 hours north and settled in the West Loop. I have loved my time in Chicago with its seemingly infinite possibilities. 

After 3 years in Chicago, it is time for another fresh start. It doesn’t feel particularly fresh as I’m leaving my home due to political developments. America has elected a president who has attempted to violently overthrow the government, praised Hitler and has been described by his generals and other subordinates as a fascist that prefers a dictatorial approach to governance. The American people seem to prefer fascism over a democracy that has been undermined and sabotaged by republicans for decades. That’s not the America I grew up in and it’s not the America I want to live in.

For the past nine years, Trump has been a dark cloud over America.. And that dark cloud appears to be turning an ominous shade of green that rural midwesterners know signifies the coming of a tornado. So I’m running to the basement and taking cover. I don’t know where that basement is but I’m going to spend the next year trying to find it. Feel free to join me on my journey. We’ll see where I end up.

Shifting My Mindset

12/3/24

When bad things happen, I always try to figure out how to turn a negative into a positive. It’s been a difficult process, but after some hard weeks, I have decided on my approach. During the next trip around the sun, I am going to hit every continent, starting in Sydney, Australia for NYE. Maybe I’ll find a new home in 2025 or maybe I’ll just recharge my batteries and gear up for the fight in 2026.