We Quit our Jobs to Travel. What Were We Thinking?

I'm writing this with tears in my eyes but excitement in my heart. This last week has been so bittersweet.

In the last several days, we closed on the sale of our home, quit our cushy corporate jobs, got rid of most of our belongings, and sold Ben’s truck “Black Beauty" he's had since he was 16. We said goodbye to everyone we know in Missouri including family, friends, and neighbors. We closed the door of our first house for the last time, packed everything we own into our car, and with our dog, Ruca in the backseat, hit the open road... technically homeless for the first time in our lives, all to set sail on a life-changing adventure.

On one hand we are eager and happy about beginning this once-in-a-lifetime journey after a year of planning. We feel happy imagining what's to come... finding our dream boat, moving aboard, ourselves with tans and Ruca dog chasing crabs on the beach, traveling to far-off destinations. The plan is to find a sailboat, buy it, and sail it from Florida south, through the Caribbean on a one year adventure. I keep trying to imagine all the happiness and excitement in our near future, but our last days in Kansas City were filled with goodbyes, endings, tears, and our heads are spinning with doubt. We will miss our families dearly, we’ll miss our friends, we’ll miss our first home and our comfortable Midwestern lives. We QUIT our JOBS? We SOLD our HOUSE? We don't even know how to SAIL for goodness' sake! What were we THINKING?

Reality, and panic, is setting in, big time.

On this day, with heads full of doubt and hearts full of jitters, I thought an appropriate first blog post, ever, would be to inform our readers (ok, really remind ourselves) why on earth we decided to set out on this crazy journey, leaving everything we know to live on a sailboat.

The Travelbug

There's a big beautiful world out there, and it's at our fingertips. We've caught the travel bug, and are ready to experience the world outside of the Midwest.

The Four Hour Workweek by Tim Ferris

Last summer, Ben and I read this >>book<< and it was a catalyst for our lives. It opened our minds to the idea of full-time traveling, and nomadic lifestyles. People do this, all the time, and they have success. Why can't we?

Not all the ideas are applicable, and it can be totally fantastical, but several ideas were eye-opening. Some of the most important ideas for us were:

- Don’t devote your life to your employer. They are not devoted to you.

- Travel while you’re young, able, enthusiastic, and your life is flexible. Don’t wait until you’re retired with an aching back.

- Tomorrow is not guaranteed. Get living.

- Travel is not expensive when your costs are low.

- Focus on what matters to YOU. Nobody else’s opinion matters in the long run.

Timing: Wanderlust Vs. Baby Fever

With of our friends having babies left and right, baby fever was hitting home... bad. However it is a well-known fact that travel with children becomes significantly more difficult, if not impossible. It came down to logistics. You can travel now, then have a baby later. You can’t as easily have a baby, then travel. If we were going to have this grand adventure before we were 60 years old, we had to do it NOW.

Twin Adventurers

My twin sister, Whitney is the bravest person I’ve met. After she found she hated what she was studying in college, she quit, and moved to St. John in the Caribbean with barely any cash in her pocket. She’s been there now almost 8 years and has a beautiful island family. Ben and I visit her and her family often, and we got married on St. John. Her journey helped us see how the courage to travel pays off, and sparked our love for the Caribbean.

Vloggers and Bloggers

When Ben and I decided we wanted a life change, we lacked a definite goal. It was only after watching vlogs and blogs of other young people who had lived through life adventures did we set our plan, which was sailing a live-aboard around the Caribbean. Especially influential was the vlog S/V Delos, filmed by a computer programmer who quit his job, learned to sail, and currently is a full time traveler.

Our Resumes

Being unemployed is SO scary. But, with several degrees and years of work experience, Ben and I have good resumes to fall back on. We don’t know where we’ll be in a year or what we’ll want to do for work, but we do know that we could get corporate jobs again if we needed to, hopefully starting again where we left off. Who knows though, maybe sailing full time will open our future career options and nix the cubicle all together?

So you see, WE'RE NOT CRAZY! Whew! There really was a specific set of events which led to this decision, we had a plan, and we're making it happen, one tiny step at a time. And although we’re only 3 days in, we don’t have any regrets…yet.

Wish us luck as we make our way south, camping from Missouri to Florida, where we begin to search for our new home... a live-aboard sailboat. Let the adventure begin!

Thanks for reading! Quinn, Ben and Ruca

#lifeaboard #aboutus