How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Travel

I began my first full-time job out of college in Jacksonville, FL, in April of 2010. In the time period between April 2010 and October 2013 (about 3.5 years), I’d traveled to the following places: Los Angeles, and Spain (Barcelona and Madrid). Those were fun trips, but that was basically it. My weekends consisted of watching sports, movies, TV, reading, and the occasional video game (Football Manager, if you must insist!). Sort of like the “nerdy single guy lifestyle”, if there is such a thing (if there isn’t, I’m claiming it). Travel was always in the ether, always something that I thought about, but never in a serious enough way.  I’d come across a list of interesting places to visit, and I’d say, “Well, that would be nice to see,” and go back to doing whatever it was I was doing. It was not a priority.

I then met Ruby and learned of her intense desire to see the world. From the time I met Ruby in October 2013, to the present time (around 2.5 years), here is a list of the places we have seen together, in no particular order: New Orleans, New York City (3 times), Las Vegas, Charleston, Savannah (2 times), Brazil (Rio de Janeiro), Germany (Munich), Washington, D.C., Mexico (Cancun), Turks & Caicos, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Philippines, Miami, Atlanta, Hilton Head, Augusta, Fort Walton Beach, the Grand Canyon, Cumberland Island, St. Simons Island, Jekyll Island, Fernandina Beach, Crystal River, Dallas, and others I can’t think of right now. So, yes, if this was a book, then my single life was Part I. This is Part II. Hopefully, Part III is where me and Ruby “find our beach”, which isn’t really about finding a beach, but about finding where you wish to be in life and being content.

We have many trips planned in the future, but looking back at it now, it’s been quite the journey (hence the name of our site, a journey we love). As the Joker said in The Dark Knight, “all it takes is a little…push” (or a big push, in my case). Traveling is great in many aspects, but, of course, it’s not all peaches and cream. It takes a lot of planning to travel a lot (duh), and that means a lot of time spent looking for hotels and activities, or what I like to call, “meals and deals.” Traveling frequently also means foregoing certain modern luxuries, such as new cars and big TVs, but we’re fine with that.  That is the path we’ve chosen.

The perfect example of this is our latest trip, which was to Dallas. This trip came about when we were looking for the cheapest flight out of Orlando or Jacksonville in March and Dallas was the winner ($118 per person roundtrip, with budget carrier Spirit Airlines). We were delayed for 4 hours at the Orlando airport because of a bad storm, and we didn’t arrive in our hotel room in Dallas until 3am. This meant that we couldn’t use our rental car because they all obviously went home, so we had to use Uber. And yet, as we were sitting at the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport on our way home after a good trip, Ruby asked me if we were going to do it again.

And without hesitation, I said yes.

And such is the tale of a reluctant turned avid traveler, who now has more countries and US States under my belt in the past two and a half years combined as compared to my first 20-something years on earth. It just goes to show how people can change (for the better), and embrace a lifestyle that was completely different from what it used to be (after a bit of prodding and convincing). And you know, sometimes the grass is greener on the other side, and the original worry that plagued the back of my head wasn’t there anymore. It makes me wonder what my life would be had I not learned how to get rid of the worry, but that’s a whole other tale to tell.