I, like many others, began working from home in early 2020. My company projected a return to the office some time later that year. The timeline for a return was delayed several times over until it was decided that we were never going back. The company did not renew its downtown Minneapolis lease in 2021 and I became a 100% remote-work employee. I thought briefly at the time that since I worked from home, I could work from anywhere. This thought was never more than daydream until the middle of 2022 when I suffered an acute ankle sprain. The sprain left me unable to place any weight on my right leg and made it incredibly difficult to be ambulatory. It also left me thinking about all the activities that were once easily available to me and which were now extremely difficult. This experience clarified for me that there were things I've always wanted to do during my lifetime that could not be achieved if the situation of my life changed. These were things that I had until that point never made time to accomplish. This revelation lead me to list all the things I wanted out of life and the situations that would make those things difficult or impossible. I was surprised that many of the things that I currently had as short-term goals were things that I could still accomplish with poor health, limited resources, and many responsibilities. Many of my long-term goals on the other hand required good health, some amount of financial resources, and little to no responsibilities. I had to re-prioritize my life. So, given this new view, one possibility rose to the surface as the best possible use of my immediate future. Travel. With my job, I was able to travel anywhere with an internet connection. I may not have such fortunate employment in the future. My relatively good health will probably not last forever and old age limits your ability to travel no matter how healthy you are. My responsibilities are currently minimal but a serious relationship or even family could be in my immediate future. I do not own any real estate even though I had planned to purchase land and build a house in the very near-term. Once I realized that travel was presently the best way to assure that the checklist of my life was accomplished, I decided to make it happen. I planned out a long trip that hit all the locations I'd always wanted to visit. I used historical weather to find the times of year those places experienced periods of pleasant temperatures and I decided that my main goal would be the exploration of all the beautiful sites that define them. I am very lucky to have this opportunity and I plan to make the most of it.
Comments