A recap.
"Every fear went through my head but being on the road taught me that the hardest part is getting the courage to walk out the door."-Matt Kepnes from www.nomadicmatt.com
As long as I can remember I was always wanting to go places. My restlessness is probably directly consequential to the fact that my mom was always pushing, pulling, dragging, strolling me along somewhere/everywhere nearly all the time in my childhood. She couldn't stay still and by proxy neither could I.
When I was in the 3rd grade I would order travel catalogues and brochures on the different states in the US that I found to be intriguing. Sadly, though I would just let them mount up on my little crumbly, hand-me-down desk without ever seriously considering the possibility that one day I could go to places like New Hampshire or Colorado.
It started off slowly. Going on cheap cruises to the Caribbean (Bahamas, Grand Cayman, Jamaica) and THEN Costa Rica. That was the first time I had left the country to go to a place that wasn't a typical American travel location and I was IN LOVE. I wanted nothing more than to come back to my typical, suburban (quite literally) white picket fence life and sell everything, travel the world, not brush my hair for a month and have questionable hygiene. However, I never considered a life rich with travel and adventure to be a reality. I just dreamed about it a lot instead. However that same year I traveled to Thailand, France and England. All shoestring budgets. All just adding fuel to the fire.
It changed my life.
Like, a lot.
And that's a great thing. It's fantastic to be shaken up and afraid and awed and angry and excited and all the FEELINGS.
I felt alive when I was living outside of my comfort zone.
Eventually after a particularly difficult last few years, I sold my house that my ex-husband and myself bought together and sold/gave away/threw away many, many things.
A time for transition is an understatement.
Eventually I began to think about what was important to me. Things? No. Clothes? No. A big house? No. So what was?
People. Experiences. Love. Friendship. All those intangible things. Oh, yes. They're nice.
So, to put everything into a nutshell, my husband, Justin, and myself have sold many of our belongings and are continuing to shed all the stuff to embark on the biggest, scariest adventure of all: moving abroad. Like, overseas...like, far away. Almost as far away as you can get before you start coming back. To the Middle East!
Justin, who is an aircraft mechanic, has miraculously obtained a leave of absence from his job for TWO YEARS (whaaaaaat?!) in order to come with his crazy wife. I have been hired on as an art teacher in a very prestigious private school which I think will seriously push my boundaries and help me grow as a professional and I'm super stoked. Don't get me wrong, friends, I am terrified. I am more excited though as the time gets closer and closer for us to leave. Did I say excited? I mean scared. No, I mean excited. NO, SCARED!.....excited....EXCITED! :D
The point of this bloggy-poo is for us to document our experiences and also for you guys to keep up with us. We want to share with you, our family, our friends, my former and graduated students, our random readers from the internet, the many things we learn, eat, do, see, etc. while we're over in Doha, Qatar.
Many people say how crazy we are to do this and we know we're crazy. I'd rather be crazy than normal any day.
-Tiffany
