Matt and I are still small town North Dakota kids at heart. Having both grown up playing outside, eating a lot of dirt, making forts in the trees and exploring the cow pastures, I guess it seems only logical that our spirit of discovery has now expanded to include this vast and fascinating place we call earth.
We met in college at the University of North Dakota where I was studying biology, and Matt was studying computer science. I spent 1/2 of my junior year studying abroad in France and Matt flew over to visit me on Christmas break (our first taste of travel together!). I was hooked on travel already, and I think this is when Matt was bitten by the travel bug. (Both figuratively and literally as he gracefully suffered through gastro while touring many of Paris' most famous sites -- what a trooper!)
Next came the wedding (still one of my favorite days ever -- 9 years ago this July!) and then the move to Minneapolis where I started medical school. We made a goal to take one "big trip" every year and during our 4 years in Minneapolis we traveled to Ireland, Venezuela, India, Spain and back to France.
Pittsburgh was the next stop for pediatrics residency and the adventures continued -- we added Costa Rica, Greece and Chile to our list of countries. It was while in Chile, at the end of the road in Petrohue to be exact, that something magical happened. It was a moment that you can't plan, can't force, or can't expect -- you can only be open to opportunity and possibility. For the first time, we thought seriously about what we had always pseudo-joked about -- leaving it all behind to gallivant around the world for a year -- to just be in the world.
And so we made it happen. Saved up, outlined a loose year-long itinerary, started reading travel blogs about how others have made it happen, rented the house, found a home for our kitty-cat, shocked our parents with our crazy plans, etc. etc. So here we go -- off around the world for a year!
No comments:
Post a Comment