The Scoop

When Vee and I first started getting to know each other, we realized that we had mutual interests in experiencing the world abroad. Vee had already seen a lot, having spent her early childhood in Germany, adolescence in Bolivia, and her early adulthood all over South America, Europe, the U.S. and beyond. Although my travels were not as extensive as hers, my Summer semester in London as an undergrad greatly expanded my appreciation for the lives, cultures, history and geography of foreign countries. When we got married, we vowed that in 3 years, we’d quit our jobs and go live in Europe for at least 6 months. Well, we just celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary (January 2006), and although we missed our deadline, and our travel itinerary is not EXACTLY what we promised ourselves, the spirit of what we are doing this year is right on. There were a few things that converged on us during the Summer of 2005 that finally made us decide to follow through with our dream.

First, was a late afternoon conversation we had with our best friends Matt and Becky Reeves this Summer. Vee had been considering a possible job transfer within her company to Hong Kong, and we explained to the Reeves that if the opportunity arose, we’d probably take it. This lead to our realization that after more than four years of marriage, we still had not followed through with our initial plans to live in Europe. We could not believe that time had flown by so quickly.

Second, was the realization that we were not getting any younger, and that we’d be getting to the point in our lives where, should we decide to have them, we would need to start trying to have kids. I’m about 34, Vee is about 30. We did not want to get ourselves in a situation, with our own kids, and/or our parents, that would make traveling abroad practically impossible.

Third, was a result of our bottled-up frustration with the state of affairs in the U.S. and our deep concern about how our country’s problems were being perceived by the rest of the world. We were disillusioned by the last two presidential elections. We deeply disagreed with our administrations decision to go into Iraq. We felt ashamed by the arrogance with which our administration handled our country's foreign affairs. We felt sad about what we have perceived to be a general decline in our people’s respect for each other here and abroad and unwillingness to understand the reasons why things are the way they are. We were tired of our consensual manipulation by corruptive corporations, the twisted media, and ongoing political spin. We were embarrassed by the image our administration and various segments of our popular culture were projecting to the world and we wanted to get out and see first hand what life was like “outside the bubble”.

And Fourth, the tipping point, was a nasty verbal confrontation I had with our neighbor. I had been bitten, on our property, a third time by our neighbors dog and I had ENOUGH. I just wanted OUT!!! I am by nature VERY non-confrontational, and I typically try to avoid situations that could become hostile. But, this time, and this may have been the only time in my life when I let loose on someone, I let our neighbor have it. Of course I thought of a hundred more things I wanted to say, after the fact. Anyway, I think it was the next morning that I announced to Vee that I thought we should go live in Europe for a while. Although it was initially a reaction to the moment, the seed of the idea had been there for a long time, and it was not long before it really took hold.

We found ourselves looking at a very small window of opportunity and we knew that if we did not take advantage of it, the probability of our ever doing so would decline rapidly over time. One major concern was our careers, of course. Vee really enjoyed her work, her co-workers, her work environment, etc., and had done very well very quickly with multiple promotions during her time there. And my business was really beginning to take off, but I was at the point where I could either shift it into high gear and expand, or temporarily wind it down. The bottom line is that we believed enough in ourselves to know that no matter what, we would be able to succeed in whatever careers we commit ourselves to, now, or later. This gave us the conviction we needed to follow through with our decision to leave everything behind, and travel abroad for the majority of the coming year.

The plan is to travel as much of Western Europe as we can, between the end of February and the beginning of the busy holiday travel season in June/July. Then, come home for a few weeks, and then live in Bolivia and hopefully some other South American countries for the remainder of the year. During this time, it is my hope to become fluent in Spanish. We both very much look forward to meeting and talking with people in their native lands, and learning about their way of living. We hope to make new friends, take lots of beautiful pictures and video, make beautiful memories, bring home new and better ideas, and find reasons for renewed hope for life in the U.S. We feel extremely fortunate to be in a position to do this, and hope that we come home better people, with more to offer, and a deeper understanding and appreciation for everything and everyone around us.