It’s About Time

We’ve all said this term, “It’s about time!” Sometimes we say it in a snarky kind of way, sometimes we say it in a ‘I was worried’ kind of way and sometimes we say it because it’s about time to take action.

My husband and I were terrible vacationers throughout our 35+ years of work life, yet have talked for years about taking a road trip across the USA and seeing all the things this beautiful country has to offer when we retire.

The year 2020 impacted us all differently. We were fortunate, we still had our jobs even though we were furloughed for several months during the worst of Covid. I had become disillusioned with work life. We lived only 40 minutes from work but most days, I spent up to 3 hours in a car. We had great jobs, but the incoming generation of workers think, work and act vastly different, as did we when we were the ‘young’ workforce. I had been telling my husband that I wanted to retire soonest, I wasn’t enjoying the commute or work (at least not what I was doing). I am a process engineer and had spent the last 11 years doing SharePoint development work. I worked for many varied customers and in the end, they really didn’t want to “improve” and frankly, many people were just as unhappy and that transcended up and down the chain. I found myself in situations where managers couldn’t manage their own emotions and keep it just business, causing emotional angst, which is where my disillusionment came in. I spent my days spinning my wheels, creating processes that improved productivity, saved time, resources, money etc., only to end up with very few customers that actually wanted to take their level of service to the next level. I knew it was time for me to step away e.g., RETIRE because I had more passion than they did for improving their business. I wanted to champion their causes, but I felt I stood alone most of the time.

In the Fall of 2020, I had a family member die unexpectedly and then not a month later a good friend died unexpectedly. Then in May of 2021, while at work one day, a 57 year old dropped dead and I KNEW it was time to take stock in what we were doing – meaning spending each day in a cubicle, never really embracing life and realizing that any of those deaths could have been ours. In the summer of 2021, we got serious about retiring and made the decision to RV fulltime and travel the country.

Don’t get me wrong, it was a HUGE scary step to actually quit working and walk away from a guaranteed paycheck every two weeks and the stability that provides. But if you believe doors open while others close and have a sense of faith like I do, then throwing fate into the universe isn’t as scary (ok, well who am I kidding it was super scary, but with a sense of peace too). Everything fell into place without one hitch – not ONE. So much had to align, like buying an RV, selling our home, and tasks that are too many to list. Never did we run into a brick wall; all the doors opened and welcomed us on this next journey. It was absolutely AMAZING – it was like once we embraced it, so did the universe.

On November 10th, 2021, we had accomplished what we set out to do and headed down the road in our 44′ Motorhome to explore this United States. We track our journey for friends and family at pws4fun.com, check it out!

We feel very blessed, but honestly, it doesn’t take being blessed it takes being determined and seeing what you want in your future. We take it day-by-day and are just enjoying the ride because we followed our hearts and not our head – not easy for two people that have spent the majority of their life working and taking very few chances without a lot of thought and preparation.

If you find yourself saying, “I need change”, more than not, then perhaps your heart is looking for a new journey. Journeys do not need to be as extreme as what we are doing, but do listen to your heart and give yourself the freedom to choose. Journeys are intended to come to end and a journey can be as little as an hour to as long as a lifetime. Your journey is yours alone, so embrace it and tell yourself, “It’s about time…”!