Life Outside The Box

With no prior experience, Lily Nolan’s family dropped everything to follow their dream of becoming world-traveling circus performers.

By Cameron Branch

A freckled girl with brown curly hair steps out of the airplane that carried her the 6,283 miles back onto U.S. soil for the first time in nine months. Nobody suspects that everything she owns is shoved into the gray backpack swung over her shoulder. Her family trails close behind, the bright red hair of her younger sister catching the light as the echoes of their laughs and recounted adventures bounce off the walls. The four hustle to their next gate, settling into a corner with dirty white walls and stiff, gray airport chairs. Heads turn and surprised looks clutter the faces of fellow passengers in the terminal as she twists her curls into a tight bun and flips her feet into the air, demonstrating an array of acrobatic handstands to pass the time. She is unafraid to share her talent and love for performing as a circus artist.

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Many people lack the courage to extend their dreams and experiences beyond what is predictable. They often associate happiness with materialism, concrete buildings with education, and societal roles with passion. The Nolan family, however, has never limited themselves to society’s expectations. Unafraid to step out of the box, they sacrifice friendships, community, and a permanent home to travel and immerse themselves in the circus world, where no adventure or experience is passed up and every risk is worth the reward. “My lifestyle has taught me to always try to get out there and do what you want to do, even if it scares you to death,” says Lily Nolan, age 17. “Now I just approach life with the perspective of just going all in.”

Nolan, a world-traveling freelance circus artist, began her journey locally. She spent the first eight years of her life in a cozy, two-bedroom rental house in Eugene, Oregon, living a normal childhood filled with fort building, bedtimes, and gymnastics classes at Bounce, a local gymnastics center. However, Nolan’s love for performing was fostered at a young age. She says, “I had my first [gymnastics] performance at 5, and from that point on, I think I’ve just always loved being in front of an audience.”

With her two sisters harboring a similar passion for gymnastics, the Nolan family decided to take a less traditional route to life. Nolan and her sisters were homeschooled, opening up their schedules for gymnastics and circus training. Her parents took odd jobs, often working from home and at night to be involved in their daughters’ lives and newfound passion. Three years later, the Nolans decided to pursue circus performing as a family. With no substantial circus training and three young kids, the family sold almost everything they owned, named themselves The Troupe Nolanders, and hit the road in a renovated school bus. “We really wanted to go all in and see how far we could take this family circus thing,” says Nolan.

Despite this seemingly terrifying uprooting, the Nolan family did not perceive it as a huge risk, but a call to adventure and unmissable opportunity. With Nolan’s dad, Greg, working in technology development and programming, a job that can be done virtually anywhere, their financial situation was not a deterrent to their dream.

Greg says, “I had the flexibility to move around and to be mobile, so from that perspective, I wasn’t quite so worried about finances because I knew that was something that we could reestablish, something that I could do anywhere.”

Nolan’s parents saw their children’s developing passion for circus performance as an opportunity to show them a life of excitement and adventure and to teach them that hard work and dedication can always get them to where they want to be.

“We saw it as an opportunity to set a goal that seemed really far-fetched and crazy, really almost unattainable, and then to work towards that goal as a family,” says Greg. “The idea was that if we could achieve such a crazy wild goal, becoming working circus artists out of nothing... that any other goal that they could set in life could be attainable.”

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Their bright yellow school bus cruised up and down the West Coast and into parts of Canada for nine months, always open to adventure and in search of opportunity. During this time, they met circus trainer Jean-Luc Martin and followed him to the crowded streets of San Diego, where they trained for three years at the San Diego Circus Center and developed their skills. This experience opened many doors for them. Nolan and her family have since been to dozens of countries around the world, busking on the streets of Germany, performing in Croatian circuses, and training with Netherlands’ most acclaimed circus artists. They live an unconventional life of risk and reward, free of traditional expectations, and with a goal of pursuing passion, finding happiness, and leading a fulfilling life of unique experience.

“It’s so amazing to be able to take in all these different influences and put it all together and present this mesh of different styles and cultures,” says Nolan. “It is easy to get stuck in one way when that’s all you’re surrounded with and that’s all that you’re seeing, and meeting lots of different people is a very inspiring thing as an artist.”

The family tackles housing hurdles and expenses by couch surfing across foreign countries, their most recent residency in Croatia landing them in the home of their trainer’s grandmother, who spoke no English. “It made the experience all the more interesting,” Nolan laughs. “It was much more authentic to see how she lived her life, definitely amazing.”

Nolan’s academic education is self-directed and designed. Through research, she outlines typical learning objectives for each grade level in high school and constructs her own curriculum using college courses and other online resources that apply to her interests and the real world. “Learning is something that I’m so interested in and I think by creating my own curriculum, I have just become so much more invested in my own education. Every day, I’m excited to do my schoolwork because it doesn’t feel like busy work,” says Nolan.

Travel experience is also an invaluable part of her education, providing a rare foundation of knowledge and appreciation of cultures around the world. Her lifestyle and unique worldly understanding have shaped her morals, strengthened her values, and taught her many life lessons.

Her innate sense of motivation and dedication carries into her everyday life. With daily training sessions and rehearsals lasting up to six hours and mornings dedicated to school, time for leisure and socializing is minimal. Her motivation and discipline through intensive training and strict schedules is driven by her love for performing. She says, “when I look at the clock and there are four hours of rehearsals left and all I want to do is go to sleep, I just think about performing, because I love it so much that it’s honestly the number one motivator for me.”

While liberating, Nolan’s travel agenda presents many obstacles that she must overcome. Most notably, it limits her socially. “It has been very difficult to be so mobile because I feel like I’ve kind of refrained from friendships with people just because I know I’m just going to leave,” says Nolan. “I felt very isolated for a few years because I didn’t have time to invest in a community or deeper relationships outside of my family.”

However, her many new beginnings have taught her the value of family. “It has become normal to have a sense of home based entirely off of who I’m with and have absolutely nothing to do with where I am,” Nolan explains. Adventure and travel form the roots of her independence and self-awareness, molding her morals and shaping her into the person she is today.

Liberated from society’s materialistic values, standards of conformity, and unrealistic expectations, the Nolans are able to experience their idealistic lifestyle of expression and passion through adventure and spontaneity. They model the freedom, courage, and perseverance that many could only dream of as they sit, legs crossed beneath their desks, thinking about what could have been.