What’s the story behind your name?
Yol Bolsun: May there be a Road
It’s not a long story, I happen to be an avid reader of country western books. Louis L’Amour is my favorite author. I started reading his books when I was just a kid. And I have read them all many times since then. One of my favorite books of his is called The Walking Drum.
The book follows a character in the 12th century that is traveling through Europe and the Middle East. A bit of a nomad. He’s also a scholar and a lover of books and learning. The character really resonated with me. I don’t proclaim to be any kind of a scholar, but I do love learning and books.
In the book, he was taught a saying from one of the people he met on his journey. “Yol Bolsun” — translated, it means “may there be a road.”
It was a common saying apparently at the time. Essentially a farewell of blessing.
For some reason, it really struck a chord with me. I’ve always remembered the saying.
Fast forward to last year, 2024. Brittney and I had been in a desperate search and struggle to try to figure out what to do with our autistic son to help him. with the help of inspiration and some of the specialists that we had befriended we decided that we were going to leave our beloved home and life in Farmington, Utah, and begin a nomadic journey in an effort to fulfill the needs of our son. As the plans took place, I began to listen to this book again and came across that saying. It hit me harder than ever before. It was almost like a prayer. May there be a road. I called my wife and told her about it. We both felt like it was our prayer.
Initially, we only kept a personal journal of what we were going through and updates and things we were trying with my son. But we named the journal Yol Bolsun.
We named the journal Yol Bolsun. It became both our call sign and our prayer — may there be a road. Seven months after leaving our home, we felt prompted to start a blog, and the name still felt right. It carried the weight of everything we hoped for. A question. A hope. A blessing whispered into the unknown: may there be a road.