My Next Great Adventure

2020 has dealt us the worst hand of cards we’ve ever had. The year for started off looking like it would be great for most of us. But in March, that took a turn for the worst. 

Disneyland in February with one of my closest friends.

I remember talking on the phone with my mother, days before many American states started to shut down. She was visiting my sister in Virginia. My brother in law was supposed to be on a trip with the university he works at for two weeks. My mom went there to help my sister with my three-month-old nephew. That trip was canceled, but my mom decided to visit anyways as she hadn’t seen the baby since he was born. At the end of her visit, concerns over the virus were growing. My sister sent a text to myself and my oldest sister. She wanted our mother to stay in Virginia with her and her family. Our father passed away four years prior, and with our mother being our only living parent, we get a little bit protective sometimes. My mother wanted to return to her home in Buffalo, New York. That phone call with her where we talked about what she would do to protect herself, and an agreement of her staying inside for 14 days upon her return home, left me uneasy. The world was facing immaculate uncertainty, and life felt spiraling out of control.

St Patrick’s Day with Potter, the world’s best cat. (Don’t tell his brother)

On March 17th, I was over at my friend’s house for our own mini St. Patrick’s Day dinner. We braved Costco together the previous Friday, fear was palatable, and we purchased some corned beef and vegetables. We watched on my iPad as Governor Sisolak announced the closure of non-essential businesses in the State of Nevada. It felt like the scene in the Hunger Games when Peeta announced to District 13 that an attack was imminent. The screen went dark, there was a brief moment of silence, and then panic ensued. We ate dinner, consumed far too much cabbage, and drank heavy cocktails discussing if the world was truly ending. 

The next day at work, emotions were high. Our job had been deemed essential and there were plenty of mixed feelings on this. I for one was happy to still be working, I couldn’t imagine the uncertainty that so many were feeling from having their employment in limbo. But I also knew that the virus wasn’t going to be going away anytime soon. Our boss assured us he would help us to stay afloat as the economy wavered. 

I continued working and even took overtime hours, until July 1st. My boss sent a text to come see him. Rumors of lay offs had been circulating the office for weeks. I thought I was safe due to my experience, as well as being one of only five people qualified for a very specific and necessary type of work. Safe I was not. I went home and applied for unemployment, while my same friend from St. Patrick’s Day brought me Chinese food and sake. We joked about all of the good parts of being unemployed, but none of the bad.  I spent the rest of that night thinking about what had led me to where I was. At 27, I thought my life would be in a different place than it is now. I love my life, but there’s things from my past I wish I could have changed.

I graduated college 5 months after my father had passed away. I felt alone, the first of my friends to lose a parent. I had my degree, and a yearning for something different. I never studied abroad, I had traveled very minimally during school. My father’s illness kept me from trips I wanted to take, and from activities I was very interested in. My degree required weekends away from cell phone service, and every return felt a lurch in my stomach when a new text message was received from my mom or sisters. After my dad passed away, I needed time to process his death. I pushed a lot of those feelings to the side to try and graduate college. After I finished school, those emotions resurfaced. I worked through them as best as I could, as best as anyone could. 

I saw the possibility of a six-month gap between school and employment. I wanted to take a short road trip. It would hit all of the Utah national parks, as well as Mesa Verde in Colorado, stopping at the Four Corners Monument, then hitting Petrified Forest, and ending my trip with the Grand Canyon. It would take me maybe two weeks and would give me a lot of time to myself, to process my emotions. I had a Prius at the time, I wanted to sleep in it; my mother quickly poo-pooed this idea. 

This was the snapchat I sent when I first planned this trip in 2016.

I was also making stickers as a part-time gig during school and wanted to pursue this as a full-time career. But it’s hard having gone to college to receive an expensive degree and then justify not using it. So, I pushed my stickers to the side, and pursued full-time work. It wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t my dream. 

So, now, here I am almost four years after starting that first full-time gig. I spent my first few weeks of unemployment organizing my house while scouring for a geology job, but they are just not available in the current job market. I also spent a lot of time researching how one could live out of their SUV full-time. Not surprisingly, I found quite a few sources on how to do this. I have a Toyota Highlander in fairly good condition. And I figured, it’s now or maybe never. 

And so, I set off on that adventure I wanted to take as a sad 23-year-old, fresh from college, wanting to do something different with her life. I have a lot more experience, wisdom, and knowledge now, though. The entire trip took me about ten days of wonderful views and unforgettable nights. I’m so glad I took this trip, as it definitely prepared me for what’s to come. 

I took probably one thousand photos during this trip. If you want to see how I did what I did, then follow along as I post my journey over the next few weeks.