I quit. It was great, if a bit anticlimactic. My heart was racing in the moments before, breathing hampered by my government issued dual layer cotton face mask. Oh but the relief after handing over my letter of resignation to my manager, whom I had only met face to face fewer times than you could count on one foot, the relief was immense. It was very cordial, and she was of course disappointed but understanding. I think I built it up in my head since I had essentially decided that I was going to quit summer of 2021, about 7 months prior.
Which brings me to luck. I am lucky to have this opportunity to willingly, and comfortably, be unemployed and eventually homeless. It truly started with my grandfather, one of 12 children born a few years before the great depression, his mother and father died when he was a young child, so he was raised in an orphanage, then by his eldest sister. Essentially, he started from nothing. My grandfather went on to serve in WWII building air strips in the south pacific, and afterwards came back home to live the American dream. I presume that, because he was a child of the depression, he was very frugal. This is a man who would turn the shower off while soaping up to conserve water. At some point in the 1950s, working a humble career as a firefighter and a tool maker on the side, he invested in Johnson & Johnson.
To make a long story short, that J&J investment was able to put six grandchildren through college with little to no debt. I was able to go on to grad school, where I picked up ~$30k in student loans, not much compared to many in my cohort. I had one interview and got a job offer to work at a nuclear power plant in Connecticut. My cost of living was somehow dirt cheap, so I paid off my loans in about a year, because 6% interest on an education is an absolute scam. That set me up to buy a house the following year, an exquisitely built 1933 brick colonial. The housing market in Connecticut was basically the last to recover from the ’08-’09 recession, so the price I paid was shockingly low. I rented extra rooms to my buddies to help cover the mortgage and keep my cost of living down.
Fast forward four years, Maggie and I eventually moved to New Mexico and I put the house up for sale. Through some magic of the global pandemic, everyone suddenly wanted to move and buy a house. Sticker price went up nearly 20% from the time I bought the house, and the buyer ended up bidding 7% over that. I was floored… Other than flipping a fixer-upper, turning a profit on a house in four years is almost unheard of. I was able to free myself of debt and add a healthy bit of cash to my savings.
This string of good luck, spanning over 8 decades, has allowed Maggie and me to quit the weekend warrior lifestyle to become full time adventurers. It feels all the more special that it comes on the eve of my golden birthday – turning thirty-one on the thirty-first of the month! I mean, it is completely arbitrary, just a coincidence of numbers. Although, I have long wondered what my golden birthday would bring, and I must say, I did not expect this!
So from here we set forth. Our rough plan is to make the most of ski season through March. While we may be ski bummin’ it, there is a lot of work to do in the next two months- starting late March we are attempting to thru-hike the Pacific Crest Trail. From Mexico to Canada, the trail covers ~2,650 miles through California, Oregon, and Washington. If we are successful, we will be hiking for 5 to 6 months. Afterwards, we hope to do some international travel to extend our adventures into 2023.
I am so grateful to have this opportunity! I hope you enjoy following along!
Distance Over Time 