Walking Like Bosses in to the Infinite Abyss

As I’m writing this, I’m sitting in the backyard of our Italian farmhouse in a lounge chair with a side table next to me.  On it lies the phone ready for music, a glass of white wine from Orvieto, and my portable speaker.  

I only need one of the three things as of right now and that’s the glass of white wine.  

It’s incredibly quiet.  The only noises that fill the air as the sun is an hour or so away from setting are birds chirping, the occasional fly or bee buzzing past, and the cat, Cruella, purring as she gets herself situated beside me.

To the left of me is a walnut tree aside a giant palm tree that Simona always says is out of place, yet, I think it really fits in just perfectly here. Behind that are the rolling hills of Umbria, calm and empty with patches covered in trees showing their Autumn colors.

It is moments like these when I can’t help but think, this is MY life.  (takes a sip of wine)

We have two more weeks at the farmhouse and I try to stay focused on living in the present, yet it’s impossible to not think about what lies ahead.  

We’ve been looking at the map on google flights trying to decide where to go next from Rome based on both desire and price point.  It’s overwhelming in the most exciting of ways to know we can go anywhere we want, but of course, there are things to factor in.  

You can live wild, free, and spontaneously, but you must be smart about it too.

We have officially decided that we are giving ourselves two more weeks after we leave Italy to travel before we go back to the States on to the next adventure.  

Why are we going back, you ask?

There are a few reasons. First and most importantly, we miss our dog (and our cat, who’s probably forgotten about us by now), and they need to be a part of every next adventure ahead. It doesn’t mean we won’t live/travel abroad again – that’s something that will always be a part of our lives – but we’re taking them with us. Secondly, we’re working towards one day owning our own business, and you can’t do that without jumping back in to the daily grind again in order to save what it takes to get there. Thirdly, you can’t travel continuously forever without making a little income while doing it, so until we get there – back to the States we go. And we’re excited for it, because it will be a totally new adventure.

Yes, we did venture out to see how much it would cost to buy one of those insanely run down cobblestone houses in Italy. 

We researched the upcoming campaign they have in the region of Molise, Italy where they are literally paying people to move to cities that are slowly dying because younger generations are moving to bigger cities and there’s no one really left. 

We talked pretty seriously to a couple who has a farm in the middle of the woods in Northern California (with goats and all), but we knew that if we accepted another opportunity where we would, sure, have our accommodation covered, but be making less than $1k a month between the two of us, we wouldn’t have the opportunity to advance closer to that goal we refuse to let only be a dream.

On to that next adventure

It’s time to start thinking about what going back entails, and though we are strong and can handle anything, it’s a lot to comprehend.

We have the opportunity to choose to go anywhere in the States we want to next.  We’ve already had a few places in mind, but when you’re like us and give yourself options – you explore all of them. Again, it can be very overwhelming in the most exciting of ways. 

So there’s planning these flights around exploring a couple more weeks. Then there’s flying to NYC after that, because that’s the cheaper city to fly back in to.  Then there’s flying from NYC to Raleigh where our car is, and driving from Raleigh to Atlanta all the while getting some QT in with family in between.  From there, we’ll fly to our next decided home base for a week to find a place we can call home (while also finding jobs at the same time) which, yeah, it might sound impossible – but, fear not.  We’ve done it before.

Then, once we find that place, we’re back to Atlanta to then drive to St Pete to grab our belongings out of storage and then from there, drive across the country to go grab our sweet dog, and then drive her to her new home.

That probably just made your head hurt.  Imagine how we feel.

It’s exciting nonetheless, and I know we’re in for one hell of a good ride.

All that to say is, we can do it. It’s what compelled me to share this short glimpse of our journey in writing, in hopes to inspire at least one person out there. Whatever you want to go after, no matter how wild and no matter what it takes to get there – it is possible. You just have to want it badly enough. 

We should explore all of our options and be confident that really, we can do whatever we want if we (cliche) put our minds to it.  Brainstorm.  Research.  Chase after what our hearts desire and not settle for anything less than that. Because in the end, isn’t that a part of what this life is about – grabbing on to it and taking control of how we want to live it?

Mike and I are super fortunate to have each other’s other half to encourage along the way, tag team on the research of what everything entails, and be there for each other when we’re really tired in that next foreign city we’ve never been to, or on that lengthy road trip that lies ahead of us. 

Those moments I mentioned earlier, the ones where I/we stop and think “I can’t believe this is MY life”?  We have those constantly – as we all should – but it takes hard work to deserve those days.

So for this moment, it’s time for me to take a deep breath, another sip of wine, turn on my speaker as the sun goes down, and enjoy these last two weeks (now four days) in Italy.

Next stop – Morocco!