It’s unbelievable to me to realize that I’ve been working on this crazy plan for almost 5 years: leave our jobs, and slow-travel extensively for a few years.
There’s been 100 steps in the process along the way including a lot of spreadsheets, travel research, having my Italian citizenship recognized, more spreadsheets, selling the house and even more spreadsheets. All of them have been part of the journey of getting us to this point, but a few steps feel more symbolic than others.
This week has felt like a biggie. This week both Mr Snacks and I are leaving our jobs.
The feelings are complicated. We’ve both been fortunate to have careers that have brought us a lot of fulfilment, and we are voluntarily walking away to take a lengthy break. But, we are leaving to travel! To do the mutual interest that brought us together! Travelling is literally at the heart of our “how did you meet” story. Still, we are leaving a lot of responsibility, accomplishment and work-friends behind with this decision. It makes it all bitter-sweet.
I have no doubt that our new lifestyle will give us a great perspective on different cultures, more time in nature (instead of stapled to a laptop), and time to explore new opportunities. On balance, I’m certain the move is the right one—just today it feels a tiny bit of sadness mixed with a scary amount of excitement.
So, now what?
We’ve got about a month before we start driving to Baja and a surprisingly lot to do. Finalize our Mexico vehicle insurance, de-winterize the van, mark out the cities to get gas in (this is only important in the Baja), stalk the weather for an appropriate window to leave, celebrate the holidays, pack for 3 months… Oh, and I’m sure Mr Snacks will want to leverage his new free time and our mountain location to ski every day possible!
Busy times ahead! But, it finally feels like this long-planned journey is about to start.