Life on the Road
On occasion, I like to make things up as I go. A career of intense detail and organization in the travel industry always forced my personal travel planning and experiences to be a much more relaxed endeavor.
The last six months of my job transitioned into a much different experience than I had been previously practicing. I finally had the ability to walk out of the office after 8 hours and not be consumed with thoughts about what I needed to do tonight, tomorrow, next week, or next month. I made a few personal and work goals, and worked towards achieving those. I finalized a new resume and committed to a plan to leave Miami; something I had wanted to do for the past two years. I gave my notice and made a training plan for the people hired to replace me. I even arranged to be able to work remotely for an additional month during this transition so that I could start my life in a new place.
Now, I find myself on a Friday of the first week of my remote life. I am sitting in a lake house, kindly offered to me by a friend/colleague, and have accomplished a lot this week with both work and personal errands to make this life a reality.
Yet, I still feel that I am wasting time. Over the week, my plans to travel have grown to include 5 more people than I was expecting to see. I am no further in my job hunt and I still spend all day on the computer or on a phone working for someone else. The big difference: my mornings, evenings and nights are in a completely new beautiful place, and if I get tired of it, I can move on!
I can’t really say that I had a plan set in stone when I finished packing that van and headed out of Coral Gables. There are a lot of things to think about when you up and leave a life spent in one place for 10 years. I was pretty impressed that I was able to move out of my office and home and get all of my belongings to a temporary place across Alligator Alley. Ok… I did have a few going away parties.
I didn’t spend any time applying for jobs before my last day, because finalizing things in the office took priority and packing was not an easy after-hours activity. I was setting myself up to have a couple of months off and to figure the rest out during that period. I still contemplated moving to a specific location, in order to establish a network and create a life before I was unemployed. But what location? That is the reason I chose to spend the first month (at least) visiting friends and family I missed or who gave me an opportunity I just couldn’t refuse.
And I am going to do just that; visiting friends, family and any interesting stranger I meet along the way, working remotely and exploring a very new world before me.
