Okay, before you close the tab or slam the laptop shut, hear me out. This year has been an unbelievable whirl wind of emotions and happenings (I don’t think I need to recap the events in detail… we were all there 😕). However, without the development of COVID-19, the shelter-in-place orders set in March and the closing of the dental office for which I work, I would have never met Brandon. Yes, put 2 & 2 together… we quaran-cheated and met during the quarantine of 2020. Can anyone else attest to a 9 hour first date of a long hike & lunch tailgate in the parking lot of Total Wine?!
Anyway, prior to the COVID, I did as most do here in the grand ol’ USofA… work, work, work. I followed the societal norm of ticking the boxes of life’s progression. I graduated college, got my degree, got the job, bought the house, etc, etc. I can’t say that I wasn’t happy, but I can say that I had come to the realization that I was not being fulfilled. I enjoy what I do, working in the dental field, I love working with my patients & sharing our life updates every six months, like clockwork. But, that is just what it was becoming… clockwork.
Upon returning to work in June, I was struggling with the notion of being back on a scheduled day; that I was set to be in the office from eight to five and I would get to eat lunch somewhere between 1pm and 2pm. I had just had three months to be on my own routine; to be productive, creative and inspired on my own terms. Getting out of the auto-pilot mode from my previous day-to-day had awaken my neurological senses to crave something more.
So, where does meeting Brandon fit into this “awakening”? I thought you’d never ask!!!…. On our first date, it was impossible to not to be taken in by Brandon’s desire for adventure & to explore all that this Earth has to share. His love of landscape photography, being a certified dive master, the excitement in his voice when talking about camping and off-road driving was hard to dismiss. It was this conversation about camping and off-roading where he said the magic word…OVERLANDING.
It is in this word, overlanding, where the adventure begins. I had dreamt of the concept of overlanding, but I didn’t know that it had a name. Once I learned that my idea of getting in the car and driving into mostly uncharted territory was not irrational, and actually came with a full community of like-minded folks, I was all in.
Since we met in May, Brandon and I have been camping as often as possible, even with an almost two month long span with the truck being out of commission. We’ve hit up the Sierra Nevada Mountains a couple times, Mammoth Lakes twice, Mount Shasta and even the Grand Canyon. Every trip we have been on has further heightened our desires to get out of the rat-race and live the life that we dream about day & night. We have officially decided to pursue the Overland lifestyle & become full-timers come November 2022.
My goal for sharing our journey is to inspire people to pursue that dream your mom says is crazy, leave that job that isn’t filling your cup & work hard to make your vision a reality. What have you got to lose?!
In the end, you won’t remember working in the office or mowing your lawn.
