Years ago, I was working full-time at my 9-5 job completely depressed! I woke up every day at the same time. Did the same monotonous routine. Lived for Friday and dreaded Monday. Sound familiar?

Every day at lunch, I would browse through Facebook and see all these travel posts. I liked every travel website out there so my Facebook was generally filled with mountain pictures and blog posts about people who quite their full-time job and and are now traveling full-time. Basically people living the dream with happiness smeared across their face. There I was thinking and feeling, what did I do wrong? Is this it? Is this my future? Is this what my whole life will be like?

I was definitely depressed and I’m not a depressed person. I was gaining weight. I was the heaviest I’ve ever been. I was stuck in the same routine. I was not happy with who I was. I knew who I wanted to be and I was not it!

I knew I had to take action, and once I got that thought in my head, even though it was scary and even though it wasn’t what “most” people do or the “normal” thing in life, I had a rush, go through my body. I literally felt tingling inside my body. I felt happy for the first time in a while. That’s what that tingling was. I felt more like myself. But how in the world do I go about this? How do I actually make this a reality?

There I was working at a county job. The best benefits, good pay, blah blah blah…. I told my family I wanted to quit to travel full-time. I bet you can imagine how that went. Imagine something along the lines of “your stupid” and “that’s the biggest mistake you’ll ever make” and “that’s dangerous, ” “please don’t go,” “you won’t have a job when you come back,” “you’re giving up a great job,” “How are you going to get that kind of money.”  And the comments went on and on and on and on.

I eventually went kindergarten style on them all because they would not stop criticizing me. They were taking my excitement and my happiness and stomping on it. I literally told them all, standing up on a chair, shouting over everyone, “ladies and gentlemen. I know you all have lots to say about my decision. I heard it all and I’m not changing my mind. At this point, if you have nothing positive to say to me, don’t say anything to me at all!” I meant it too. You could hear the sternness in my voice. After that, I didn’t get much negativity. So it worked!

So with quitting my job and traveling full-time, I was not prepared with this move. I was not planning on it. I just made that decision sporadically at lunch when I looked at this one specific travel post where this girl made it happen and I knew at that point I couldn’t look at one more post without actively turning this dream into a reality. I knew this had to be done, for my own sanity! I could’t just sit back and watch other people live their dream any longer. I wanted to be one of those people.

So I saved and saved and saved. I saved crazily heavily for 6 months. I didn’t just want to quit my job and only go for a few weeks and run out of money. No! I wanted to do it smart yet as quick as I could. I saved literally every dime. I sold things. I did what I had to do. I have an article strictly on “saving money.”

After the 6 months, I saved $12,000. I had no idea how long this 12,000 would last me but I was aware I was going to make every dime count. I budgeted while traveling tremendously!!! I made every dollar stretch to its max capacity and was able to travel with that for a long time!!! Years!!!!

I did start Living on the dirt, right away. Actually before I even left I started Living on the Dirt, because I wanted to make money to travel even longer. I wanted to become a travel writer. That was the real dream. It still is actually. For me, there would be nothing better than traveling and getting paid to do it! If you enjoy what you do, you never work a day in your life RIGHT?!?

Living on the dirt was successful but not enough to pay the bills. I did eventually run out which is why I came to Buffalo 3 years later. I got a terrible job (basically the same job I had before I left) and fell into that depression the very first day I started.

After my first day of work, I came home and cried for 3 hours in the same spot. I sat on my floor and cried and cried and cried. The only thing that got me to go into work the next day was knowing “if you go into work, then you can travel for 3 days off the money you make in 8 hours.” I said that sentence to myself every morning going into work. I did the math and I already had my departure date set in mind for my next travel run. Except this time, I wasn’t planning on coming back for a really long time.

I worked for less than 6 months and quit. I couldn’t do it! And guess what. My family told me it was a bad idea! But did I listen. Of course not.

What I did do is do something for myself and my own career. I’m now my own CEO. I get to create my own schedule, hours, and don’t have a BOSS! Yes!!!

Did I make less money at first? Heck yeah! I started my own business. I lost money. I went backwards in saving money to travel but was I happy? YES! Most definitely!!! So now here I am in Buffalo, NY. Now that things have settled down and my business is going well, I’m making plans. I already have a 10 day vacation in Maine where me and my boyfriend are going to canoe down a river, hike up the tallest mountain, visit Arcadia National Park, etc. That’s in July.

August we have 2 weeks in Alaska!!!!! And December, I don’t know 100% yet but I’m going to try my damn hardest to either go to Patagonia or New Zealand for about 3 weeks.

So here I am, back in the GAME! My goal is to still travel and get paid for it. Meanwhile, I’ll be working my own business in Buffalo, getting paid good money and setting time for myself to travel literally as much as possible.

I did what I set out to do and I’m so proud of myself! I did it! I’m not working the 9-5. I’m not depressed and right now, I’m in that process of finding my way for the ultimate dream!!! I know it will happen and I’m excited to take you on this journey with me.

Thank you for reading!!!

Sincerely,

Living on the dirt/ Shelly 🙂