The Crossing: Welcome to Border Co.
From the UK to the US and the life in between.
Far West Texas is a landscape of memories and dreams. A rugged expanse of desert, mountain and mesa, tucked in the furthest corner of the state. It is a place both removed from civilisation and rich in culture. Its remoteness drew me there often, to cruise the open roads and embed myself in the landscape. It was during my last road trip across this land that the idea for Border Co. formed.
That final journey marked the end of a significant chapter in my life. I’d spent seven years living and traveling in the States. Having become a US citizen, I was preparing to return to my homeland of England to reconnect with family, friends and a life that I’d left behind.
On a shallow stretch of the Rio Grande that serves as the meeting point between Texas and Mexico, I reflected on the change experienced during my time in the US. Standing between the walls of Santa Elena Canyon, the significance of crossing over to new places and new opportunities resonated deeply. I thought of my body as a border. A point now connected to two places, carrying the experiences from both.
Looking back, there were three journeys in the US that established my passion for being on the road. The first and most significant was a month-long road trip with friends across ten of the western states in 2016. Days were measured by the miles covered, the people and sights discovered, and the long late nights in new towns.
There’s joy in setting out for a new point on the map, revelling in the forward momentum across new landscapes. It is there that I find myself happiest. Moving through layers of the past and present. Embracing the spaces in between. Spaces that inspire thought, reflection and creativity. A keen writer since childhood, these travels encouraged me to utilise the written word to capture the moments encountered along the way.
The experiences from that month-long journey, and two subsequent road trips across Texas and the borderlands of the Rio Grande, were the most significant in spurring my imagination. Driving pitch black desert highways. Cluttered conversations in crowded bars. The buzzing neon and blood-red glow of motel signs. The echo of my boots on deserted streets at dawn. These moments and many more fostered profound changes within me, cementing a passion to use my journeys as a means to explore a ragged form of writing that blended my experiences with fiction.
My personal background is varied. I moved out of the family home and into a girlfriend’s house aged sixteen to chase a life of unregulated drinking and adventure. I got kicked out of those digs and ended up back where I started. I studied music, then journalism, then found myself working for a magazine after graduating university. The pay was awful. A glorified internship. So, I went into retail for a better pay check. But also, for more interaction with people.
I’ve been in retail for over a decade now. It’s taken me from the UK to the US and back again. Along the way, I’ve moonlighted as an editor, copywriter and volunteer firefighter. I’ve even had some poetry published. In retail, I find my conversations with strangers to be the most fulfilling part of the job. It’s surprising to find how open a stranger is willing to be when you take an interest in who they are. Many of the strangers I’ve met on the store floor have become good friends. Our relationships cemented by a shared respect for each other’s stories and ventures.
While borders divide, they can also unite. They are points where different schools of thought meet, and where we connect with new landscapes on our adventures. They could be the edge of a new town, a mountain ridge, a coastal path, a river’s bank, or even a state line. In these places, our bodies are borders too. A point between our inner self and exterior experiences. Those experiences can expand our horizons, foster thought, and change the way we consider the world and ourselves.
Ever experimenting with words, I was looking for a means to merge my passions for writing, discovering stories, and creating meaningful partnerships.
Enter Border Co.
Border Co. is a travelogue of sorts. A chronicle of writings and snapshots captured on the road. The content might take the form of creative prose, scraps of fact, and shreds of fiction gleaned from observations. It might be a few sentences of captured dialogue from the mouth of a stranger or a long-form article focused on a specific experience, person or place.
Border Co. will also act as a bridging point for collaboration with makers. There’s a list of essential goods I’ll always throw into a backpack or duffle bag when heading on the road. The aim of future collaborations will be to explore these items, pulling out, examining and personalising the utilitarian goods deemed versatile enough to pack for a journey. Essentials built with longevity, craft production and a story to tell. The first of these will be revealed soon.
From glacial mountains in Montana, windswept prairies in Wyoming, Atlantic waves against the coast of Maine, and the cold clarity of nights in the high desert of West Texas, the natural grandeur of the US landscape inherently stirs much of the writing I produce. My time training and serving as a firefighter in Texas also granted me a deep respect for the men and women supporting communities, public lands and natural resources. Border Co. will strive to support and give back to these causes at every opportunity it can.
So, you may wonder: What exactly is Border Co.? Publication? Brand? Fundraiser? Perhaps it’s a little bit of all these things. Let’s just call it a project—to bring together stories and voices from different places to one crossing point.
I invite you to join the journey. I’m excited to see where the road will lead.
Welcome to Border Co.
- J. Bowyer