We were lucky to catch up with Sham Moussaoui recently and have shared our conversation below.

Sham, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

On November 10 of 2021, I decided that I was going to make the transition to becoming a vagabond which is the term used to describe a homeless traveler although more specifically I’m a hobo because I incorporate the work aspect into it by doing temp jobs, such as warehousing, to continue funding this journey. I’d gone on a few extended roadtrips where I lived out of my car, referred to as rubbertramping, which took me across the country five times during the earlier part of that year. At the time, I was sharing an apartment with a friend in Jacksonville, Florida where I’d moved to from Oregon after enduring three surgeries, one shoulder and two on the same elbow, in the span of seven months. The idea behind it was to get a fresh start and see if changing environments would jumpstart further life development. I’d been struggling with mental health and addiction which stemmed from a rough childhood and overall challenging background. I was getting tired of living in a bubble and suffering from a tortured soul. Was it truly me or my surroundings that was most responsible? That was a major initial question I was trying to discover the answer to. I soon realized it was me who needed to make some fundamentally changes which lead me to finally get treated for a variety of issues and ultimately was the best decision I’ve ever made. With this newfound vigor it was time for me to dive fully into society. The plan was relocating to Las Vegas and restarting my career as a licensed electrician which I’d become after completing a 5-year IBEW union apprenticeship. Also, despite my tough upbringing, I’d overcome astronomical odds to achieve quite substantial accomplishments which include graduating with a BA in Political Science with Honors from Oregon State University in only 2.5 years at the age of 20, wrestling for one of the top teams in the nation and becoming an amateur MMA champ among other things. These are stated simply as details to give a better context to the diversity of my experiences. So on October 10 of 2021, I packed everything I owned into my Honda Civic with the intention of doing a final cross-country roadtrip as part of the move. The drive included a detour to Detroit, Michigan because I wanted to film more huge abandoned buildings which I’ve done around 30 of so far. That was my main hobby while traveling and the style was using a headcam to give a solo POV-style view especially of being at night alone in massive places such as hospitals, malls, schools, factories, offices, grain silos, etc. Everything started off solid until my car broke down at Ford Field Park in Dearborn, which is sort of a suburb, on that fateful day of November 10th. After having watched hundreds of hours of vagabonding, urban camping, survivalism, trainhopping along with other unconventional undertakings, I decided now was the time to put it all to use. I consolidated my possessions, my entire life, into 3 bags. I’ve lived on the streets of cities like Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit, Las Vegas, Chicago, Seattle, Reno, Spokane, Denver, Allentown/Bethlehem and many others as I still currently am traveling around the country by illegally riding freight trains as opposed to driving. I’ve slept in countless spots, dealt with various scenarios and endured temperatures ranging from -40 to 120 degrees. I’ve had the highest of the highs such as going through places like Glacier National Park in Montana while riding on a train car or inside a locomotive and the lowest of the lows while mindlessly wandering around struggling through a variety of situations amongst the throes of loneliness. My adventures have taken my across 42 states, 50K+ miles roadtripping, 12K+ miles trainhopping and counting. As a result, at the moment, I’ve compiled about a terabyte of media spanning 50+ hours and 10K+ pictures. I’ve been documenting my lifestyle across social media (search iamshamtheman on any social media platform including YouTube) and trying to portray myself in the most real, raw, transparent, and genuine manner possible. It still doesn’t seem completely real how I went from being a disillusioned hermit who watched others perform to now becoming one of the performers who others watch. They helped save my life by giving me hope and I hope that I can convey how impactful this has all been so that maybe someone else might be positively impacted. I’m truly trying to use social media to be social. Ultimately, my biggest risk was betting on myself to fundamentally transform into a more complete person and doing it by any means necessary. It’s been a helluva trip!

Sham, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Discussed much of this in the preview section so my apologies for not fully addressing this all here.

My goal has been to show what it means to be human. It covers the entire spectrum so at times there’s negativity, but I consider that as a type of conditioning. The stoic ability to persist despite what you’re subjected to and a focus on the immediate. I got into documenting my life journey as a way to express myself, help others, experience the vagabond/hobo/homeless lifestyle as well as trainhopping, delve in the urban exploring subculture, and much more. My hope is to expand the media I’ve collected, and continue to collect, across all mediums and hopefully be able to tell my story to the masses.

A problem that I solve, so to speak, is to show that you can go from suffering to success in a plethora of endeavors. Maybe if someone observes a simple man who shows some vulnerability succeed then they might be willing to take the risk themselves although I do urge it needs to be a calculated one. The ability at which I’ve done it is unique and that’s what I’d say sets me apart from others. Feel free to reach out to me whenever.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

It was my transition from living out of my car to living in the streets. Became a vagabond on November 10 of 2021 in Dearborn, Michigan. Ended up first sleeping in the stairwell of a parking garage. Discovered by police, had guns pulled on me, was handcuffed and detained while being accused of setting off the fire alarms. Despite running my ID card and having my record come up clean, they decided to transport me several miles away to dump me off at a shelter in inner-city Detroit. Not sure if that’s even legal, but I didn’t have a choice. After deciding the shelter option wasn’t best, mostly due to how they’re run and the sheer amount of individuals suffering from untreated issues, I decided it was best to urban camp instead. One particular location was outside in the parking garage behind a bunch of storage at Motor City Casino in freezing weather. I’d go in the casino daily to relax, watch TV and enjoy free fountain soda drinks as I planned for what comes next. Ended up getting COVID twice and going to the hospital only to be released back into the cold weather with nowhere to go. Not to mention the mental struggles that come with it all. Thankfully I powered through and am still continuing to do so till this day whether it presents me with misery or joy.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

To be understanding and developing the ability to comprehend alternative methods of self-improvement. I’ve always been a trial by fire type of person. The whole “phoenix rising from the ashes” mindset. Being an extremist who is obsessed with the details and learning everything there is about whatever I’m involved in. The dedication required to become a more authentic version of yourself entails all of that. You might not agree with all my methods, but behind the madness there’s definitely sound logic. Be willing to more deeply analyze them as opposed to insulting or viewing them as off-putting. Tearing others down is a limiting factor because the bad attitude and unwillingness to consider more options is a recipe for disaster.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: iamshamtheman
• Twitter: iamshamtheman
• Youtube: iamshamtheman
• Other: Reddit:
  iamshamtheman

Image Credits

Sham Moussaoui (iamshamtheman)