By now, many of you know that I am retiring in 2020 and just like Paul Harvey, here is the rest of the story.

I read a story on Facebook last week that I could really relate to and though it discussed someone quitting a job, I think it also relates to someone contemplating retirement. 

I am paraphrasing the story with my own decision.

Picture me standing outside and my feet are at a white line running perpendicular to the direction I am facing.   My toes are touching the line.  The side of the line where I stand is my current reality. The other side of the line is everything my current reality is not. The other side is different and a new journey. My current reality is a schedule that has me getting up early and traveling nearly 50 miles in each direction.  Depending on the season, this reality takes as quick as 50 minutes but sometimes several hours in each direction.  I have driven an estimated 700,000 miles and 14,000 hours just back and forth to work and that takes a toll on the mind and body. Assuming that it is 24,860 miles around the earth, I have travelled over 28 times around the world and haven’t even seen anything I really wanted to see.  I know that you may be surprised to hear this, but I have yet to visit all of the continents.  This reality also confines me to 25 vacation days.  Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy (most days) the work and the people.  I think I have come to the line several times and over the last year or so have decided not to cross the line.  In my mind, the project is going better and there are glimmers of hope that things are changing, but there are days where it has been a struggle whether it is just making it to work or making it thru the next project.  One day I made a conscious decision that the only one who can make a change and cross the line is me.  I am responsible for my life’s journey.  I don’t know how different my life will be on the other side of the line, but I am certainly going to find out.  I am excited for my life’s journey to be able to travel while my husband and I are still healthy and not have the stress of travelling to and from work and being at work every day.  I am excited to have unlimited vacation days where I can extend a trip for a little longer.  While we may not be taking that around the world cruise that I always talked about we will be taking several cruises and travelling to every continent in the 1st year of retirement.  This journey will take us all the way through February 2021 and will have us traveling just over 80,000 air miles.

Join me on this journey as I travel to every continent and explore the people and the cultures.