Going back to a work environment that I don’t love after 12 days of new experiences, exploring and actually living as opposed to just existing has been TOUGH!  Thankfully last week was only a three day work week because I was definitely over it after those three days.  In somewhat exciting news, my employer has finally decided to permanently fill my supervisor’s position, effective this coming Monday.  The position (Center Director of 25+ employees and 150+ offenders) has been vacant since the end of December 2016 (and it’s definitely felt like a ship without a Captain the entire time).  So, hopefully the transition and change are tolerable, and, maybe even positive.  Time will tell.

The entire time we were off work, I really, thoroughly had a good time.  Sure, there was a “trying” day while we were in Colorado, but, nothing that compared to my discontent for my current employer / place of employment / bi-weekly routine of giving up 80+ hours of my life to get a big paycheck.  I often thought about my ability to earn an income while we were there, through either independent contractor gigs or picking up a part-time job at the Visitor Center.  The reality of being able to leave my relatively high-paying, very comfortable, very secure job to be able to travel, experience new things and work from different locations continues to increase.  And, as it increases, my anxiety about actually doing that seems to be decreasing.  Not by leaps and bounds, but, little by little.

In Colorado, both our rafting guide and our horseback riding guide talked about how they enjoy their part-time, seasonal “not so great paying” jobs and I feel like they truly meant it.  It’s interesting to be working toward this goal of retiring early, selling everything and moving onto a boat and meeting people who have kind of done the same thing.  Focusing more on living, enjoying life and making enough money to provide the necessities than making a ton of money, buying a bunch of stuff and just existing.  I couldn’t help but be jealous of the lady answering the phone in the rafting shop who got to go rafting every day or the lady working in the dispensary who got to talk about growing, selling and smoking pot all day.  Certainly neither of them were making a killing but they both seemed genuinely happy with what they were doing.

I couldn’t be more thankful that I have a husband that came up with this seemingly ridiculous plan of buying a boat, quitting our jobs, selling everything and seeing where life will take us.  The more time that passes, the more I realize that I really am unsatisfied with the idea of working for the same, sad employer for the next 20 years, punching the clock every day, living only for the next weekend and / or vacation.