Priorities

I have always been a goal oriented person, setting reasonable goals I feel I can reach with a reasonable amount of effort set forth. As Garrett and I have now earned our PE's, we have accomplished one of our top goals that we set about 5 years ago. We all know that not all things go as planned and now that I am approaching the end of my '5-year goals' I set when I came out of college, being unemployed was not one of them! Although its not the best salary I could be getting, unemployment has given me the opportunity to have a summer break and plan my wedding in leisure as well as spend a lot of time with friends and family, things I wouldn't have been able to do otherwise and I am greatly appreciative of that. After working hard for almost 5 years, Garrett and I have also booked a trip of a lifetime. At the end of September, we'll be leaving to visit China, Thailand, Australia, and New Zealand for almost 4 months! We are both nervous but mostly excited. This is really a dream come true and we are so thankful that we had set our priorities in the last 5 years to make this happen. Originally, we wanted to be gone for one year. However, since the economy went down and both of us enduring paycuts, we're going to make the most of what we can afford. We will miss all of our family and friends while we are gone and it will be very strange not to be around during the holiday season. I personally am kind of looking forward to that, though. I know that for the rest of our lives, we will be around family and friends and going crazy trying to make it to multiple locations to eat multiple meals in not much time, so I'm excited for what I believe will be the only Thanksgiving and Christmas Garrett and I will be spending alone in a low-key setting. When we get back, I'm imagining our set of priorities will probably shift, but we'll always have our travel memories to look back on with no regrets.