Purchasing one-way tickets to Fiji is probably the most irresponsible move either of us has ever made — or probably will ever make. Our timing, of course, is terrible. The country – and much of the world – is in financial dire straits. Unemployment rates still flounder in the stratosphere and job security is thin. Yet here we are making the incredibly obnoxious move of abandoning two well-paying, secure jobs when so many are without any source of income. Adding to the absurdity of our plan is the fact that I know exactly what it’s like to feel hopeless and insecure from a lackluster job search. Early in the recession, my position was eliminated, and unemployment haunted me for nearly a year before my current company hired me. But we’ve assured ourselves – and our fearful parents – that we have the majority of our lives to spend boxed within a cube farm. (I stole that term from Wikipedia. If you’re a masochistically inclined office denizen, read their “cubicle” entry.) Now is the time to skydive, scuba dive and bungee jump because we still physically can.
For the most part, Him and I are pretty average, boring late twenty-somethings. We aim to go to bed each night by 11 p.m. We have three unsocial cats. We catch the occasional weekend matinee, and we look forward to Sunday evenings at the local burger joint, where we moonlight with his parents as “Higgs and the Bosons,” the indomitable trivia team. In short, we morphed into an “old married couple” long before we married.
When it comes to travel, however, Him and I do relish the opportunity to step outside our comfortable routine once in awhile. We were both fortunate to have parents who value travel and know we are privileged to have explored much of the United States and a good deal of Europe as children. As adults, we’ve come to save our precious allotment of Paid Time Off to visit a new country each year, most recently spending a handful of weeks in Spain, Peru and Belize. But no office worker has ever been content with a mere 14 days of vacation a year. We’re greedy for more and wish we had ventured to some of Earth’s more distant, exotic sights after graduating from college and before starting our first 9-to-5 jobs. Now that we’re married and the big 3-0 is looming, we anticipate a mortgage, 2.5 kids and a large hairy dog on the horizon. We very much want those staples of the American family – but not until we have attempted to learn more about ourselves by exploring the alien cultures of others.
