Wednesday, July 23, 2014

It's that time again!

The decision to go wasn’t an easy one. We’re five years older (FIVE YEARS?!?). We’re further along in our careers. We’re closer to our friends than ever before. We’re basically living the dream, on the Venice boardwalk in sunny California. Why would we give all this up? Are we crazy??

The short answer, I suppose, is yes. Crazy for traveling. For meeting new people. For seeking the unfamiliar and in turn finding an unforgettable adventure. For that particular feeling of freedom that we’ve only ever known during that year we spent traveling the world. The year that’s on display all over the walls of our beachfront apartment. The year we haven’t stopped thinking about since the day we got home from it, three and a half years ago.

When our final flight touched down at the end of 2010, we had high hopes of getting a few freelance gigs, stashing some cash, and leaving again in a year. And then, the inevitable happened. We got full time jobs. Bought a new car. Signed up for a cable+phone+internet package. In other words, we became functioning members of society again. We got engaged. We married, over an incredible weekend in the redwoods surrounded by those we love most. We started making responsible investments. We even began talking to a real estate agent. We filled our tiny apartment with all the stuff we had shed the previous year. It’s incredible how quickly you fall into the life you left behind, how fast you accumulate all the things you thought you didn’t need anymore.

But that longing never faded, despite how much we tried to ignore it. It peaked over this past New Years Eve, sitting in a dive bar in the middle of the Arizona desert. Together, we tried to recount our favorite moments of the past year of our lives. Okay, ANY moments of the past year… and pretty much drew a blank. What did we DO for the past twelve months?? By contrast, you could name any date in 2010 and I could tell you where I was, what I did there, who I was with, what it tasted like, smelled like, felt like… Every moment of my life that year was so unbelievably palpable, cause I was truly living it like never before.

The years that have passed since our round the world trip have flown by in a blur of work, TV shows, happy hours and hangovers. When every day/week/month is relatively the same, it’s alarming how quickly time passes us by. We know we are incredibly blessed to lead the lives that we do, and by no means take that for granted. It’s just that the year we were gone, with a new experience inherent each and every day, felt like a lifetime.

So, that NYE we decided it was time to start living again. Slow things down. See the world. Challenge ourselves. Take a leap of faith. Is it risky? Of course. Are we terrified? Absolutely. Might we someday regret leaving all of this behind? It’s possible. But we’ll never know until we try. And we’re so very grateful that the desire burns in both of us, equally, to cast off into the unknown yet again.


This time, it’s a little different. We aren’t trying to circumvent the globe – Our path is a bit of a mess actually. We don’t have a specific time frame we’re trying to adhere to. And, biggest of all, we’re hoping to end in Europe for a few years. With Reece’s Irish citizenship and our recent holy matrimony, we can now live and work anywhere in the EU. 

Our plan, roughly, is as follows:
(those awesome folks who want to meet up with us, take note!!)
 Three months in Mexico and Central America (most likely Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and/or Nicaragua)
 Home for 1-2 weeks in October
- London for Reece’s sister’s wedding October 19-24
- Two months in Spain and Morocco
- Xmas with Reece’s family in the Florida Keys
- ?????

Tentatively, we’d like to spend a few months in Southeast Asia after the holidays. But if we’re tired of traveling by then, maybe we’ll shoot straight over to Europe to look for work. Or, who knows, we could come crawling back to LA broke and homesick. Most importantly, we plan to listen to our hearts and do whatever the heck we feel like. Which is pretty much the best plan we've made yet.


4 comments:

  1. Great choice you guys. Please be safe and adventurous. I will live vicariously through your postings.

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  2. I dropped Reece's passport in a ditch. guess youll have to revise the "living in europe" plan. See you in Thailand. Hoootihoo!

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  3. I've missed your writing, Sabrina, and I'm glad to be following your adventures again. Wishing you safe and happy travels! Xoxo

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  4. Hooray! Hooray hooray hooray! Just...this is great.

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