Friday was our last day at work. We both put in our notice and finished on the same day, just before the holidays began. For Christmas belated Hanukkah celebrations, my parents are flying in from the East coast, and my brother and his wife are driving up from SoCal. Then one week after my family departs, We leave for our adventure.

We’re in the home stretch now.

When I told coworkers that I was leaving, and what I’d be doing with my time instead, everyone had the same two things to say:

• “Do it while you can! That’s the dream. Boy, I wish I did something like that.”
• “That sounds amazing! You must be so excited!”

I am excited. But honestly, the travel we’re about to embark on doesn’t seem real to me yet. Even though I’ve spent many, many nights putting together research, planning then ripping apart then reorganizing itineraries, comparing hotels with homestays, and booking flights … the actual travel part has not sunk in yet.

This plan of ours has been in the works for so long. As Isabel mentioned previously, every time we crossed one thing off from our list, we added 10 more items back on. The last six months has been non-stop for us:

• A 4th of July National Parks road trip.
• The following weekend, I went to Mexico City for my brother’s bachelor party, and Isabel went to Park City, Utah on a girls trip with her two sisters and her mother.
• Back to New York to see my family for the first time since Thanksgiving.
• Moving out of our 3-bedroom apartment, where Isabel has lived for EIGHT years, in just 4 weeks.
• Putting our things in storage, and moving in to Isabel’s parents’ home.
• The morning after we handed our keys to our landlord, we packed up our car and drove down to Long Beach to celebrate my brother’s wedding!
• Weekends packed with concerts in the East Bay, shows down in Mountain View.
• Back to New York for a friend’s wedding.
• Portland and Seattle to spend Thanksgiving with Isabel’s sister and her in-laws.
• Farewell dinners with friends.

Okay – I full well realize that me complaining about all the bougie plans we made, and all the fun we’ve been having, is not going to elicit any sympathy from you. Just take my word for it that we’ve been exhausted, and all of this was my sorry attempt to say:

 

For the last six months, we’ve barely had the chance to just sit down and breathe.

We have been so focused on getting to this point. Friday we both received our last paycheck. It’s going to be our last influx of money for a long time.

Things that I will miss about work:

1. The people.
2. Getting paid.

Things that I will not miss about work:

1. Early morning alarms.
2. 2-1/2 hour, 3-leg commutes.
3. Pings.
4. Deadlines.
5. Meetings.
6. Rush requests.
7. Putting out fires.
8. The word Ping.

I long for the days that I don’t know what day of the week it is. And the best part about that feeling is: we won’t need to know.

SO – we fly out on January 7th. We spend three months in Southeast Asia, followed by three months in Europe. Europe we’ve hardly thought about yet. We have ideas of places we want to go, but that’s for later. Southeast Asia however, I have fully planned out (that’s the aforementioned itinerary shredding and pasting back together), and booked 75% of it.

I’m really proud of this. Not pictured is a detailed (if slight embarrassing) spreadsheet keeping track of it all. There are different tabs for: hotel confirmations, flight reservations, expenses, a running daily list, and a calendar view. While I’m pretty sure my dad would never quit his job and travel around these parts, I did get his anal-retentive, organizational skills! Thanks dad!

VERY IMPORTANT: If anyone plans on being in these parts between January 7th and the end of March, or wants to be, please reach out! We would love to meet up with you along the way! Or, more likely, if you find it more palpable to find yourself in Europe in the Springtime, let’s plan together!

We would love, love, love to meet up with friends and family along the way!