Bold.
Brash.
Brave.
Brilliant.

All powerful words to describe the magnetic force that is Dusti Arab.

Dusti is a truly dynamite young woman that has burst onto the minimalism scene the past few months, gaining more and more momentum as she creates, debates and makes you think twice about life and how you ought to live it (hint: for yourself and no one else).

A straight-forward, no-bullshit approach, you can discover more of Dusti’s defiant and contemplative writing at her blog, Minimalist Adventures. Her new blog, called Undefinable You, will be launching on April 11. She’s also self-published The Minimalist Mom and offers Conquer the Clutter for free.

Now, onto the interview, shall we?

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Nina: Dusti, welcome to Castles in the Air! Glad to have you with us today. So. I’ve known you for a number of months now and have seen tremendous growth in you and your blog. Can you tell me why you decided to start Minimalist Adventures and where you think it’ll take you?

Dusti: To be honest, I started Minimalist Adventures because after reading something, I felt so motivated and changed that I had to do something to change the world.

Last year, what began as a search for a productivity system ended up leading me to Leo Babauta’s Zen Habits. I loved it, and quickly found myself in this particularly interesting room on the internet where everyone within had decided to get rid of all of their useless junk. This was my kind of place! Before finding out what minimalism was, I had already grown to appreciate that I was happier when the burden of material possessions was gone. Stuff was just stuff, and it came and went as it pleased. It wasn’t long before I ended up on Tammy Strobel’s site, RowdyKittens, where she happened to inspire me at just the right moment. Everything clicked.

Minimalist Adventures was born out of a list of my values that I paired up randomly until they sounded good together. The tag line came out of a phrase I say frequently, because I do firmly believe everything in life is an adventure. The good. The bad. To simply live it means you can fully enjoy each and every adventure more fully.

That’s where this is taking me. Very soon, I’ll be leaving behind minimalism as my primary topic for a new, shiny domain, but at the heart of it remains my core beliefs. I’m hoping this will catapult me into an unending chain of success where I cultivate a passionate, enthused tribe of people who all want to do amazing things. We never really know, though, do we? ;)

Nina: That’s amazing to hear! I’m quite excited about where you are headed. It’s bound to be a transformative and enlightening journey.

Dusti, you’re spontaneous, thrifty, smart and incredibly sharp, no doubt due to your diverse life experiences and background. How has this helped you adapt to your natural evolution as a woman and as a mother to your young daughter, Evie?

Dusti: Thank you for the compliment! Well, my personal evolution has been put in the fast lane, to say the least. I grew up before most people I knew did, which made high school very difficult for me. Out of the house a few months after my 16th birthday, I moved to my grandma’s and then a friend’s. To pay for what I needed for school, I’d find odd jobs or work somewhere for a few months to save up. That was while maintaining a solid GPA, being involved in extracurriculars, and keeping up a social life. Because of the constant changing and stress, I latched on to a long term relationship while I was very young as a way to keep some stability in my life.

Ultimately, those choices led me to where I am now. My life hasn’t been easy, but there are very few regrets there. I see my old friends getting wasted every night while they are away at college and don’t feel like I’m missing anything. While I may have “missed out” on some of the freedoms that are normally a part of one’s early 20′s, I believe I exchanged them for the greater freedom I enjoy now. People my age are still typically struggling with self-identity issues to some extent, but I have to know who I am, so I can help my daughter become the incredible person she will grow into.

Nina: That is incredibly beautiful and powerfully moving. You are no doubt a role model to many young mothers in the world.

And speaking of education, here’s a highly debatable question: What are your thoughts and viewpoints on traditional education versus non-traditional education?

Dusti: Oh snap. Well, higher education is great in that it has been why I’ve been able to mostly stay home with my daughter. On the other hand, it has primarily been busy work that has only taught me to get better at jumping through hoops. I am the queen of bypassing gatekeepers in this regard.

Many people need the structure involved in traditional education, because they were raised in the traditional education system their entire lives. They haven’t been taught to think for themselves. Analytical thinking is rare to come across in the public school system, and rarer still is anyone teaching kids how to be self-disciplined enough to educate themselves independently of a system preparing them to fail.

Why do I think it is nothing more than a preparation for failure? Because that’s what I watched happen at my high school. I’m watching it happen at my sister’s school now. The bureaucracy involved in the standard public school is disgusting, and it is a major part of what is hindering kids and teachers from accomplishing what they are there to do. Teach and learn.

It’s also important to point out there isn’t a distinction in who is doing the teaching and the learning either. As Paulo Freire points out, employing the use of tyrannical dictatorships is no way to run a classroom, and the democratic nature a learning environment has the potential to assume is hindered when the teacher is only using the students as a receptacle for their own incomplete knowledge.

Needless to say, you won’t see my daughter in public school.

Nina: You’ve had over 30 various jobs in just a few years’ time, living under the national poverty line your entire life. I say this to preface my respect for you and your sheer tenacity to not let anyone or anything stop you from achieving your dreams. Can you share with us what EXACTLY keeps you going day-to-day and from having your face fall flat on the floor in utter exhaustion?

Dusti: Because… I have to.

Recently, I wrote a post on the reason I’m so driven to succeed, which you can read here, but it essentially comes back to knowing no one else will do it for me.

I have to be amazing, because I have the potential to be. I have to rise above my upbringing, because I know I’m better than that. My daughter deserves so much better than that.

My grandmother was also a huge source of where my motivation came from. She taught me to read when I was 3. Most people from a wealthy background can’t even say that. I absolutely believe early literacy was key in my success in school from the beginning, and those successes drove me to seek greater successes later on.

As far as logistics go, I’m a big believer in planning. Not long term planning so much, but I have to have everything written down if I expect to remember it later. Writing things down and having a general plan that I can roll with is vital. I dare you to try juggling a two-year-old, the stuff required to keep said two-year-old sedated for a bus or bike ride, and a backpack full of stuff for class without a plan. Good luck, lol.

Nina: Exponential growth online makes us feel we are living quadruple times (and much more) the current life we have in reality. This has been discussed in numerous TED talks, on Everett’s blog, and countless other mediums of technological information. Where do you see technology and the digital world taking us next? And will we really become more humanized because of it?

Dusti: As bandwidth becomes more freely available, plan on seeing an explosion in video blogs, a feature to be included on my newest project. This phenomenon extends to multimedia, as well. In six months, you won’t be able to release an e-book without some serious bells and whistles. Those are all merely tech predictions, though.

Where we are heading is a complicated mesh of different answers. We are heading towards a split that will be devastating to a large number of people; that is to say, the technology rift, or digital divide, is becoming more pronounced, and for those who aren’t on board, their lives are going to become very difficult. In the next few years, I guarantee you will see an even sharper division in how people consider the internet in their daily lives. Even now it’s becoming painfully obvious for those of us who are leaving loved ones in the dust, as they fail to evolve with the technology, how important becoming one with our digital selves is.

I am extremely interested in this subject, which is why I have begun to work with Amber Case in her study of cyborg anthropology. The word “cyborg” turns many people off, so in mixed company I use “technosocial hybrid,” which is apparently more acceptable and doesn’t make me look like I’m crazy.

The exploration of this topic is vast, which is why I will be releasing a free e-book at the end of this month to give a brief history, explanation, and projection of what the digital self has come to embody and why it matters.

Nina: This is imperative to note, that technology is evolving us as a human race faster than your neighborhood dry cleaners can starch iron your dress shirt. I’m highly curious as to where this will lead us, as an individual and as an individual operating as part of a larger whole of the human dynamic.

Moving along … Dusti, you’re experimenting with location independence this year, with travels to Argentina in the summer. What do you think is the biggest benefit to not being tied down to one place your entire life?

Dusti: The BIGGEST? Oh, geez. Getting away from the people I’ve known my entire life.

It’s not that they are bad people. Many of them are a part of me, and they will remain a part of me for the rest of my life. The fact is, though, they expect me to be someone I’m not anymore. I’m not the same person I was even six months ago. Half the time when I see people I know on the street, they don’t even recognize me at first glance.

Getting away from all of the expectations, the obligations, and my family will only force me to rely more heavily on myself and the wonderful strangers who may turn into new friends and possibly even a second family. By removing the familiar, you allow the newness of the experience to fill you up. I don’t want to be concerned with the trivial affairs back home when I can show my daughter the world from our constantly shifting front porch.

Nina: I love how you refer to world experiences for you and your daughter as a “constantly shifting front porch.” How incredibly accurate this description paints.

As writers and bloggers, we absorb an insane amount of information in order to stay well-informed and abreast of any useful movements and trends in the digital world (and ignoring anything that isn’t valuable to us in our lives). What books, blogs and websites are you currently digging that you highly recommend others to check out?

Dusti: Wow, it’s hard to choose blogs right now. There are quite a few killer ones on my radar right now. You know I’m a huge fan of Everett’s work, so his blog for sure. I love your blog, but you already know that.

Ash, at The Middle Finger Project, has been rocking my freaking world. Recently, I did consulting with her for my new project, and she absolutely took it to the next level.

Lately, I feel like Colin at Exile Lifestyle has been digging through my brain to make me more reflective, too. He takes something small that’s been floating through my head and can turn it into a well thought out post that ends up making me feel just a little more complete when I’m done.

As for books, Hamlet’s BlackBerry, What Technology Wants, The 4-Hour Body, Fast Food Nation, and The Omnivore’s Dilemma have been started and finished in the last two weeks, and they are amazing.

In a nutshell, what you eat matters, and soon you’ll have a gadget to tell you exactly what to eat. :)

Also, you all need to check out www.cyborganthropology.com. It’s being run by the amazing Amber Case, and she has adopted me as a cyborg-lackey-in-training!

Nina: That’s fantastic; congratulations! Now. Here’s a straight up question: What does freedom mean to you?

Dusti: Freedom is not having to worry about where rent is coming from. It is never feeling chained to a place, because I know I can move on my next whim.

Freedom is being able to do and be whatever it is my fancy strikes, because I am worth it.

Nina: Quick! Name 7 things you would rather not live without, even as a radical minimalist, and why.

Dusti: Wow. That’s a great question. I honestly couldn’t give you seven, because I’ve literally lost everything, two different times.

I’d rather not live without my laptop, because it is my personal entrance to the internet.

Comfy shoes are vital, because I walk everywhere. Right now, they are Hush Puppy boots, but it doesn’t really matter, as long as they can survive 2-5 miles of walking a day.

Everything else is optional.

Bonus Question: Why are you such a bad ass superstar?!

Dusti: Oh, not even! Lol. I’m… “Just a small town girl, living in a lonely world!”

Okay, only kind of. But, I am one motivated bitch (in the best way) who you will continue to see on your radar.

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No doubt. I truly believe Dusti is one of the powerful women at the forefront of influential world-changers. In whatever world-changing dynamic you want, be it in life experiences, in minimalism, in technology, in education, in location-independence, and so forth. Again, be sure to check out her new blog, Undefinable You, launching on April 11.