Today We Quit Our Jobs

“Be brave. Take risks. Nothing can substitute experience.”

– Paulo Coelho

Some days I wish our dreams were a bit more bland.  It would be easy to dream about buying a home, having children & taking a two week trip to Hawaii.  

Our dreams are stressful.  I constantly wake up at 3am to add more things to our 'to do' list.  It's often for silly things ("buy enough powder foundation to last 6 months abroad!"), but sometimes it's BIG... as in "find temporary housing for October or else you'll be homeless one week after your wedding."  (*deep breath*)

“Success is never the result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire.” 

– Arnold Glasow

We knew planning this trip would require stressful sacrifices.  At the time, we didn't realize it would include a wedding, quitting our jobs and two moves all within a matter of weeks.  Even Arnold Glasow would think we were crazy!

Today we gave our official notice to our bosses.  While we're still hopeful for a leave of absence, we're not counting on one.  The anxiety of not having a deposit hit my account every two weeks hasn't sunk in yet, but I'm sure it will soon.  I'm grateful for all of learned at this company over the last seven years so it will be bittersweet to move on.  I'm just praying the next venture presents itself sooner than later once we return to the US.

Photo Friday - What I'll Miss Most

Aside from horror of trying to live out of a carry-on suitcase for six months, the most difficult aspect of this trip will be leaving Mason & Cody behind. They will be living "the good life" with their grandparents while we're gone, so hopefully they won't mind our absence too much.

Let's Make it a Honeymoon!

We're engaged!  Yemi surprised me with the question I had been hoping for & a ring more beautiful than I could have imagined.  I feel so blessed to have him in my life.

We'd love to get married prior to our travels, so we're planning to squeeze the wedding in just prior to our trip and making the trip our honeymoon.  This will make for fun conversations when our coworkers, who know we love to travel, begin asking us where we're going for our honeymoon:  "We're having trouble narrowing it down...we want to go everywhere!"

Now comes the challenge of balancing planning for both a wedding and a RTW trip.....yikes.

We've Decided to Take a RTW Trip - Now What?

It all began as we were driving through New Jersey in I-80W in route to my small hometown in Missouri for Christmas 2011.  Two friends of ours had just left on a round-the-world (RTW) trip and Yemi was jealous inspired.  They would be the second couple of friends that we know to have done it. He'd always dreamed of taking a trip like this but figured it was too late since he was now finished with school and climbing the corporate ladder like a rock star.

"We should take a RTW trip," he said.

My stomach immediately knotted up and I bit my tongue as I tried to silence my 3,498 reasons why that was a silly idea. Over the next several months, we talked in depth about what we wanted out of life, where our careers were going and how this dream fit into those plans.  I read a lot of RTW blogs and a funny thing happened - it became my dream, too.  Ultimately, we knew we had to make it happen.

Now What?

Once you decide to take a RTW trip, the next logical step is to question yourself.  

"Are we crazy?"
"Can we afford this?"
"We ARE crazy!"
"What about <<insert excuses here>>?"

Next, you'll share your plans with your rational friends and family.  Everyone will fall into one of two groups:

The first group will think you're joking and give you rational reasons why it's an insane idea.  They'll bring up the obvious economic woes plaguing our country and the risk of quitting a cushy corporate job.  They won't understand why you can't just be happy with your employer's world-class PTO policy.

The second group will encourage you.  They love travel and understand what an incredible experience this will be.  They know the ideal time to take this trip is before you settle down and have kids.  They are your cheerleaders.

After you finish questioning yourself and realize that life is too short to let this dream pass, you'll start planning.  You may be a wanderlust, but you want to be a responsible wanderlust!