A New Chapter Begins

I am writing this blog from my new home while I stare out a big window and watch the scenery gradually change. My new home being a Class A RV, the scenery is constantly changing through what I like to compare to a big screen TV. It’s a very large window!

One of the awesome things about roads trips is watching the vegetation and land forms slowly mold into something new. There’s something truly meditative about it. Sometimes a formation will appear that dramatically stands out in contrast to the surrounding scenery and that only makes the scene more awe inspiring. How did that happen? It doesn’t quite make sense and yet I wouldn’t design it any other way. I marvel at the Creator’s handiwork over and over again.

I can’t help comparing the dramatic scene change to the journey my husband and I have willingly signed up for. What may seem like a spontaneous decision to the outside world, in which our lives dramatically shift from a normal pattern to one of risk and adventure, is merely a series of events, both good and bad, that have aligned us to make a big decision that is right for us in this moment.

First, let’s make it really clear what we have done. We have made the decision to live full time in an RV for an indefinite amount of time, exploring the country, seeing people we love, and taking opportunities as they arrive. Icing on the cake, we made this decision without any clear terms of future employment or monetary benefit, at a time that the economy is questionable and gas/food prices are high.

So what were the events leading up to the big decision? Good question, dear friend, I’m glad you asked. But of course, this is also a complicated question with many facets to the actual answer, so you will have to bear with me if you want to gain a true sense of our why.

Let’s start with the fact that Jon and I have been married for 10 years and we don’t have kids. If you have read any of my breaking barren blogs, you already know that infertility has been apart of our marriage for along time. Personally, it’s the hardest, most humbling journey I have ever been through. In January, I self-published “Warrior Mom” with one of my best friends in tribute of this journey. I can’t even describe how healing it was to create something meaningful from something so dark. I won’t got too deeply into that now, but what I do need to make clear is that Jon and I are on an indefinite break from fertility treatment.

Next I’m going to combine the challenging, all-encompassing, under-compensated career of teaching paired with the emotional and political tensions of the pandemic. If I hadn’t already had the desire to experience another category of career, this would be the perfect recipe to consider other alternatives. Though I have enjoyed my time working with children, I never wanted to be a burned out teacher hanging on until I reached retirement. I’ve made a promise to myself to try something new that will open other doors. I know teaching will be there if I want to return, but for now what I want is something new.

I have been praying for new life for so long, but I can’t pinpoint when I realized that new life isn’t solely defined by my womb’s ability to produce. In reality, there are many other ways to experience new life. We could deep dive into this, but to keep this blog moving there are other components to address.

Finances. This is what I would want to know if someone else was deciding to do this. How can you afford this?

Part of the answer is that we are choosing to. There are a million ways we could spend our money, but we have decided for now to commit financially to an RV lifestyle. There are known and unknown costs associated with the choice; however, we aim to keep our overall expenses consistent with our former lifestyle.

It is here that I would like to thank ChooseFi (Financial Independence), for being one of the most influential podcasts I have ever listened to. Jon and I began to think about finances in a whole different way. Not only did we save money and become debt free, but we also started investing and rethinking what we spent money on.

As we both love travel and the learning that comes with new experiences, we began investing more into these experiences. I’m not sure when we found “Keep Your Daydream” on YouTube, but we fell in love with the idea of RV life as we watched this lovely family share their adventures. Jon even turned his old landscaping trailer into a camper that we would take out for adventure weekends. All this to say, we have been thinking of RVing for years, we just thought it would take longer to make this lifestyle a reality.

Our original plan was to invest in real estate, before we started this lifestyle, as we liked the idea of renting out units and passive income. However, as real estate prices soared, our opportunities and confidence to buy went down. That being said, our desire for making life changes remained.

Putting all the pieces together, we decided to invest the money we had been saving into ourselves. RVing would give us a place to live, serve as a vehicle for new adventures, and give us time to pursue new careers. It seemed like suddenly we could have our RV lifestyle now, so we took the leap.

Tearing my ACL/ meniscus and having knee surgery was not apart of the plan, but then again neither was an immediate career opportunity for me to work remotely.

What has been amazing to watch is through both the expected and unexpected circumstances that occur, if you just keep taking steps to move forward, and sometimes steps to mitigate damage, you find things falling into place. It might not be in the most organized, Pinterest-perfect kind of way, but you can create big changes in your life if you choose to.

Change is exciting and it is also scary. Jon and I are fully aware that making a choice like this has its pros and cons. We are leaving a wonderful community, a sense of stability, and a lot of conveniences for a lifestyle on the road. Still, I can’t even tell you how right this feels for us.

Before you think we are going to have a year full of luxury and vacationing, let me assure you we both have some pretty cool jobs to do while we are on the road.

Jon’s job is all things RV: driving, planning where we stay, vlogging, maintenance, making sure we have internet, etc, He’s got his hands full with learning this massive machine and I am amazed that he is able to drive us around the country. He is incredibly handy and capable of doing so many things that he will be busy working/lending a helping hand wherever we are.

I start my new job as an instructional designer for an internet security company July 5th. It might sound crazy, but I’m just as excited about that as I am with traveling. I also hope to continue writing and publishing children’s books with a dear friend. As I said this year was about investing into ourselves. That’s not just in terms of traveling, but also new career experiences. I am thrilled that this happened so soon and thankful for mentorship from a good friend to get me into the world of instructional design.

Jon and I are thinking of this year as an adventure year. A year where we focus on filling our buckets spiritually, emotionally, physically, and relationally. We want to connect with others and be open to new opportunities. We are beyond excited to see friends and family and spend some intentional time with them.

Speaking of relationships, we are so thankful for the help we have received from friends and family to help us transition into this new lifestyle. Truly, we could not have done this on our own. We are still processing the love and sacrifices that people in our community made to help support us.

We have had many people ask us if we will document our journey and the answer is…yes! At least, we are going to do our best! We want to share our adventures, the ups and downs and in between, with all of you. Our community gives us strength and we wouldn’t want to leave the people we love out of this grand adventure.

It is here that we invite you to follow along with us via this website, Facebook, and Instagram.

We love you guys and we hope that you will enjoy our adventures, mishaps, etc. as we experience a new way of living.

Joy is light. Sometimes our buckets are heavy.

Let's fill our buckets with more JOY!