Him
Tom has an MBA from USC and a BA in Communications from Cal State Fullerton. He spent many years in a cubicle thinking life would be better if he only had an office. He finally got his office, but he gave it up to take our trip last year. Now he works for CBRE which enables him to keep traveling while making money. No office, no cubicle, lots of work, lots of travel, lots of fun.
Fun Facts: Tom dedicates his fall to college football, hunts for the world's best cheeseburger, sips whisky, laughs at cats, and reads biographies. |
Me
I graduated from UCLA with a BA in English. But like any good English major, I got practical after college; I obtained my securities license and developed a career in mergers and acquisitions in the lower-middle market. I spent a lot of time with retiring business owners. Not one of them ever said they wished they had spent more time in the office. So I decided I wouldn't either. Now, I'm starting my own business that's changing the way business owners sell their companies and also changing the way I work.
Fun Facts: I squeeze lemon on everything, self-soothe by chopping veggies, write poetry, train hard, search for the perfect cocktail, and seek to continue a life of entrepreneurship (which started with a hamster business at age 7). |
Us...Better Together
We started dating in high school. I was only 15 and Tom was 17 (he could drive and had a car...what more could a girl want at age 15? Right?). Anyway, we married in 2006 right out of college and jumped straight into the "responsible" life. Within a 2 month period, we graduated college, started our full time jobs, got married, and moved. And less than 3 years later, we bought (and fixed up) our first home.
We didn't study abroad and we didn't take a gap year. But having both traveled internationally in high school and college (China, India, etc...), we definitely had a mutual itch for international travel.
So we made it a priority to save up enough vacation time every year for at least one big trip overseas. We went to Brazil, Costa Rica, The Caribbean, Vietnam, Thailand, and more. But the more we scratched, the more we itched. We longed to take longer trips. Two weeks a year just wasn't enough to see the world.
So we left our jobs to travel for over a year straight. Now we're back, but travel is like a drug and we can't quite cold turkey. So now we have the challenge of building a life, participating in a community, and finding adventure amidst real life.
If you want to learn more about what led us to quite our jobs and travel for a year, click here.
If you want to learn more about our perspective now that we are home and rebuilding our lives, click here.
We didn't study abroad and we didn't take a gap year. But having both traveled internationally in high school and college (China, India, etc...), we definitely had a mutual itch for international travel.
So we made it a priority to save up enough vacation time every year for at least one big trip overseas. We went to Brazil, Costa Rica, The Caribbean, Vietnam, Thailand, and more. But the more we scratched, the more we itched. We longed to take longer trips. Two weeks a year just wasn't enough to see the world.
So we left our jobs to travel for over a year straight. Now we're back, but travel is like a drug and we can't quite cold turkey. So now we have the challenge of building a life, participating in a community, and finding adventure amidst real life.
If you want to learn more about what led us to quite our jobs and travel for a year, click here.
If you want to learn more about our perspective now that we are home and rebuilding our lives, click here.