Our Big (Scary) Announcement

It’s a ring!

It’s a house!

It’s a baby!

No, it’s…two unemployed twenty-somethings living out of a used Pontiac.

Our announcement seems a bit different than other “settling down”-themed news from couples at this age and stage, but I think a lot of it comes from a very similar place. Like many people, my boyfriend and I met, dug each other, and started building a life together. We got big kid jobs. We decided what our goals were. We saved, saved, saved. We planned and replanned.

Then we gave notice on our lease.

Then I quit my wonderful job in marketing.

Then we sold our furniture (not that we had much, anyways).

And now, here we are. No babies, puppies, or mortgage payments in our near future. But still—trying to build a cool life together, investing in solid goals.

The only difference is our goals look a lot like this:

Yeppers, turns out when two history students hook up, it is only a matter of time before they leave reality behind and attempt a big Civil War themed road trip.

(We. Are. Huge. Nerds.)

This is about more than a single trip, of course. Long-term, I’m taking the plunge into fulltime freelancing. Essentially, I’m starting my own business. Rest assured: I’m terrified.

“But you had a job-with-benefits-and-RRSP-and-and-and…”

…and I loved that job. I loved almost everything about it, but I needed to try this. Maybe fail at it, maybe not, but I needed to try.

I don’t know much at this point in the game, but it seems to me that getting super-skilled at the (lucrative) things you love is a good way to go about career building. So even if I fail, I want to spend at least the next couple years becoming amazing at what I really enjoy–writing, content strategy, digital marketing, and back again.

It’s half entrepreneurial, half sabbatical, and all scary.

This is a we decision, of course. A bit more career mobility on my end gives us the opportunity to live closer to the Niagara farm my plus-one runs with his dad–he can actually come home at night, and I can awkwardly pretend to help. It opens us up for future winter trips before we actually set down roots. It’s a step towards the life we want to build together, which is pretty freaking cool.

Admittedly, this isn’t what I thought partnering up and creating a career would look like. My mental image growing up was a little more white picket fence and a little less laptop-wielding nomad. And maybe we’ll do that someday.

But for now, this is what life looks like. After months of saving and preparing, we’re here. I couldn’t be more excited.