Travel, to
me, is one of the most exciting experiences I’ve had the ability to have. We
moved to Flagstaff in 1994, and I stayed through all of my school years in
Flagstaff. I went to NAU for my undergrad, not being a fan of the heat (I only applied
to the state colleges). Plus, Flagstaff was home—my friends were here, my mom,
my kitties, and everything was wonderfully familiar. I must admit that I didn’t
particularly like Flagstaff when I was a kid, but as I’ve grown up, I’ve come
to absolutely adore this little town I call home.
Needing to
change things up while I was an undergraduate student, I applied to study
abroad in England. It was the scariest and most liberating experience of my
life. Me, a small town girl, living in government housing, opened the door to
new places and new experiences. I don’t think any of my family members believed
that I’d actually follow through with it when I mentioned it in the early fall.
But, I went to all the courses and interviews, got letters of recommendations
from teachers, and prepared myself to live in England for 5 months.
That’s when
the idea of traveling became such an important part of my life. While I was in
England, I went to many different cities in England, but also got to go to
Italy, France, and Ireland. The thrill of seeing new places, experiencing new
cultures, and taking it all in was so liberating and incredible. I’ll never
forget going to those places and how it felt knowing I was doing it on my own,
with my own money, at the ripe age of 20.
I haven’t
been back to Europe since 2007, but this year my partner and I plan on going
for 4 to 6 weeks. After I graduated with my BA, that next fall I went straight
into Grad School, and in 2011, when I graduated with my MA, I was figuring out
what to do next. Maybe go abroad and get my PhD, maybe go abroad and try and
get a job as an editor for a publishing house. I did neither of those things,
as opportunities opened up at my current job, which was quite unexpected since
I had been told for 1.5 years that I’d never get hired as a full-time employee.
As soon as I
graduated in 2011, I moved out of the house my mom and I were in for the past 7
years, and moved in with two girls. I started experiencing paying rent, buying
all of my own groceries, paying for pretty much everything I needed. And with
my beginning salary, I was struggling to pay for things. I worried every month
about my expenses and if I’d actually be able to pay for everything. Of course,
it always worked out, but bringing home $400 every two weeks was harsh, so I
used my credit card.
Once I
actually got my full time job in 2012, money was still pretty tight (I hadn’t
gotten a raise with the full-time job), but at least I could work 40 hours a
week. I also got health, dental, and vision insurance, which was awesome! But
with that, came the expenses of having multiple things done. I broke a tooth in
April, so I had to get a crown and shell out $650.00 of which I didn’t have,
then I got three more crowns as well as a re-treatment of a root canal that
went bad, and then two more crowns. I didn’t think about planning for these
huge expenses, I just charged them on my credit card. $10,000.00 later, I was
at least done but had to figure out how to pay this all back.
So my goal
of 2014 was to pay off my credit card. I stopped going out, stopped eating out
as much, didn’t buy all the yarn I wanted, stopped buying clothes, stopped
doing anything I knew I couldn’t afford. And by the second week of January, I
was debt free.
The relief
and the breath I could take knowing I was out of debt is still unbelievable.
My goal for
2015 is to travel abroad for 4-6 weeks. I already have the time for work
available, and I have a travel account set up and putting money in it
bi-weekly. I replaced most of my credit cards with cards that have the specific
chips you need to go abroad, and I am putting it out in the universe, every
single day, that my partner and I will go abroad this year.
One of the things that will be really helpful is this new budget application both of us have. It’s called, “You Need a Budget” and it basically tells you how much money you have to budget. I have never really known my actual budget after all my expenses were paid for, and this program has been helpful to see where my money is going. I have always micro-managed my money and have focused strictly on the money in my bank account, which has gotten me in a lot of trouble of over-spending. It’s only my second month using the program, but so far, I like it a lot and am looking forward to using it.
Anyway, back
to traveling. Our goal is to travel to the UK and Scotland. In the UK, we’d
explore for a week or so, and then take the train to Edinburgh, where we would
rent a car and drive along the coast counter-clockwise. Experience the country
of Scotland and stay in B&B’s, taking our time in each location. We have
decided to not have a set agenda on what we do and where we go. Of course, we’ll
need to buy plane tickets and train tickets, but for the most part, we plan on
just going and staying at places along the way. A couple of my friends who have
been to Scotland have said it’s rather easy (and cheaper) to not make
reservations in advance, but to just go wherever it is you’re going and ask a
local for a housing recommendation. We plan on going in late August and through
September.
Our objective
is to simply explore and enjoy the beauty, people, and experiences that follows.
We’re not fancy and will not be spending a lot of money on fancy hotels or
restaurants, but instead really enjoying the experience of travel. I personally
don’t understand why people travel and stay in the main cities, in fancy
hotels/resorts, but that’s ok. I don’t need to understand. What I do know is
that we will most likely not being doing that. We even thought about camping,
but we’re going to save that for another trip.
I find such
joy in travel and I remember always being nervous when I did travel abroad, but
how that nervousness ended once I was there. I’ve always been a nervous child,
and I think with my new meditation practice and realizing that everything
happens for a reason, it brings me a sense of calm and comfort. I am grateful
to also have a partner who enjoys and wants to travel. It’s one of the things we talked about when we
started dating 4 years ago. We haven’t done a trip abroad before, but we have
done road trips and traveled to different parts of this country, and luckily we’re
great at traveling together.
I am looking
forward to this year of new opportunities and travel.
