We set out to Paradise Coffee Shop to embark upon a favored travel activity: sit in a coffee shop and read a book. It's as simple as that, but it never fails to amaze me how much of a stretch this simple practice can be when you're at home and in your element. We sat at the coffee shop that day, chatting about our journeys as we took breaks from reading. Both of us seemed to be beating around something, and neither of us knew quite how to break the news to the other: settling down just wasn't going to be an option.
Sure he had a good job, and I was about to begin my first career teaching with Teach For America, but, that didn't mean forever. Eventually, we got right to it: I wanted to hike the Pacific Crest Trail. Adam wanted to make travel a part of his future. It seemed, we could concoct a grand bargain of sorts. And so we did. And here we are.
We began saving with our new goal in mind. We took a meandering road for a bit; Adam joined Teach For America, which meant another two year commitment, and I got a new job, which meant I would want to stay on for a bit longer. But, what really kept us grounded for 5 years, was the love of our lives: Toby. We had taken him in earlier that year, and we were not going to renege on our promise to give him a happy home in old age. So, we stayed. And four years later, our little man checked out to the heavens, and it was time for Adam and I to uproot and move on to phase two of our lives.
And now, phase two has arrived.