Steph’s take on taking a big leap.
Being a lifelong planner, most of my life has been mapped out since I was 8 years old. I am your typical type A, follow the well-worn path, kind of girl. Every decision I made was calculated based on what the next 5 decisions would be. I liked to remind people that I am a spontaneous person, by explaining exactly when and how I could be spontaneous. I enjoyed having free time, during which I would schedule out exactly how I was going to spend my free time with lists, calendars and plans. Are you starting to get a picture of what we’re dealing with here?
You can only imagine the reaction I got when I told people I was quitting my amazing, highly coveted job at Nike and traveling the world with the love of my life. I received the same initial reaction from most people – excitement and surprise with a tiny hint of jealousy. The second reaction was usually mixed – some people naturally wanted to know where we are going on our trip and for how long, while other people immediately wanted to know what I was planning on doing when I get back. I suppose it’s a fair question knowing my history of having a well-thought-out plan for every stage of my life. It was the first time I was going to be essentially jobless without knowing what was coming next. If I were 25, I might not be okay with this situation. I would have been terrified to lose precious time building my career. But now that I’m in my early thirties, with 10+ years of a successful career under my belt and some money in the bank, I felt more confident that everything would work itself out. It also helped that I knew we would be moving back to Arizona eventually to start a family and I would have to quit my job at some point to make the move.
“After we figured out that we had the means and ambition to do a trip of this magnitude, we knew it would become one of our biggest regrets in life if we didn’t act on it. So… WE’RE DOING IT!”
Making the decision to quit your job and travel the world for an extended period of time is liberating to say the least. I always felt somewhat trapped with only 15-20 days of PTO each year. When Lucas and I were planning our honeymoon, we kept talking about “big trips” that we wanted to take that would each be at least 2 weeks long. With 15 days of PTO each year, it would take us forever to travel to all the places we wanted to experience while we were young and able to partake in adventurous activities. So, we strung all the “big trips” together and ended up with an epic around the world itinerary (more to come on that later). We know that it’s now or never for a trip like this. We don’t have kids yet, we are transitioning to a new city and new jobs, we have savings and we are fortunate enough to be in a position to travel. After we figured out that we had the means and ambition to do a trip of this magnitude, we knew it would become one of our biggest regrets in life if we didn’t act on it. So… WE’RE DOING IT! We saved money (hard but do-able with some careful changes), we planned an epic itinerary (because, remember, I’m a planner by nature), we quit our jobs (yes, I really quit my job at Nike), and we are heading out on the road in just a few short weeks with a backpack and a passport.
Happy #wildbumming! Read more of Guide Architect Step and her hubby Lucas on their blog here!
