Hey! I’m Devin and it took me 25 years to admit what I was truly passionate about. It took a health crisis, a spiral in my mental health, and what felt like hundreds of sessions with my therapist to finally say, “alright, I’m quitting 9-5 and making this life what I actually want it to be.”

During the summer of 2019 I was interning at a college. During my first few days, I was experiencing paralyzing ocular migraines. As the migraines became more frequent, I noticed numbness on my left side; from my forehead, to my teeth, to the tips of my fingers all the way down to the tip of my toes. Completely numb. I was alone in a small dorm room while I was experiencing numbness and made the decision to go home for further testing. I had never experienced that type of episode before, so I left that day and drove myself home. When I arrived home, I spent the next 36 hours in a doctor’s office getting pricked, poked, and x-rayed.  Since the episode seemingly came out of nowhere and I was presenting as a “healthy 24 year old,” physicians were reluctant to believe my experience as the tests were not offering any answers to my condition- they were starring at me like I had 7 heads. Few, other than family, believed what was happening to me. Well folks, turns out I was not crazy…and I only have one head…along with one hole in my heart, a mass in my sinus and 14 TIA definitions on an MRI of my brain. The doctors then informed me that the hole in my heart had been there since I was a baby but was never discovered. Additionally, the birth control I was taking had thickened my blood and with my heart not functioning properly, I had a series of mini strokes. I guess you can say the mass in my sinus was just my luck.

At this point you’re probably thinking, “yikes!” Well, yikes is right. “Yikes” became my new life motto. When doctors call you a “hot mess,” you know it’s bad. Physicians orders had me walking 12 miles a day to stay physically fit and eating strictly vegan - well as strict as I could (I like cheese). I stopped taking birth control, scheduled surgery and went back to work as a Resident Director at a college in August. Life seemingly went back to normal.

As work progressed, I sat through countless meetings and found myself looking at travel blogs and following Instagram travel accounts. I was focused on building my career, but something inside me was craving the life I always wanted; on a beach somewhere. Everyone was telling me I was rocking the professional world. I had a solid job, with full health coverage, a steady income and a roof over my head. I even had promotional job offers coming in, but I didn’t feel 100% fulfilled. I was tired of waking up every day and doing the exact same thing. I had lost my stride to succeed and began to coast through the days. What once was a job I loved, I was now dreading. I started joking about the idea of quitting, packing my belongings and disappearing to a beach somewhere. I talked about it so often a friend even came up with “Bon Bon Voyage.”

So that’s what I did. I handed in my resignation and I Bon Bon Voyaged right out of my 9-5 into the world unknown. I graduated with my Masters and began talking to a girl who, little did I know, would start my traveling adventures.

I’ve had a love for people, new places and travel my entire life but it is not the norm of the “real” world. I was terrified of taking the leap without a true safety net under me. Yes, I have my Masters Degree but I knew if I failed, I would be right back in an office dreading my day to day life again. To make sure the 9-5 life wouldn’t be part of my future, I became a certified Independent Travel Agent and began to love my work life more and more….from the beach, or really anywhere. ;) 

Hi! I’m Jade and my story is very different from Devin’s. I never had a medical mystery occur, nor was I stuck in a career that wasn’t for me but instead I felt like I was in this constant limbo of wanting more to the life I was currently living. I was ready for change and honestly, needed a change.

I was going into my senior year of college and my major and minor were already completed so I was just returning to school to meet the requirement of credits NY State colleges require before you can graduate. I was searching for a way to get off campus and do something with my time that mattered.

When I looked at Devin “lets actually do it” to the backpacking South-East Asia idea, I was already going to Ireland for three months in the fall for a study abroad program. I then figured out how I could go to South-East Asia for the spring and made it happen. I didn’t really think about it fully but instead just said “here we go.” I didn’t know it was going to turn into my future but instead, I was just grateful I would be traveling for a year.

I knew I wasn’t going to ever stop feeling like I was in a limbo unless I actually did something about it. I wanted to travel the world. Period. It just so happens that I was lucky enough to meet the girl that was willing to travel with me.

I grabbed the girl’s hand that was willing to say “yes” to traveling the world with me and I haven’t let go since. Sometimes it’s way easier to not think about what could go wrong when you say “let’s do it” but instead think about all the things that could go right. I am meeting new people everyday, I get to eat food from all over the world and I’m doing it all with my best friend because I decided to make my dreams into a reality.

Now, what’s stopping you from making your dream a reality?