I grew up in a family of immigrants who came to America on the promise of peace and a better life. Whether they wanted to or not, they traveled internationally very frequently before finding a home in Chicago. Me on the other hand, I've never left Chicago other than a few roadtrips growing up. We could only afford to camp or a few motels, but meager travel was still very exciting to me, creating a deep desire for wanderlust.
Only in recent years have I had the resources and a travel buddy who could allow me the luxury of travel. We went on many adventures which I loved dearly. I developed a way I liked to travel and a preference for places I liked, which was all new to me.
I acquired a "companion pass" for the better part of a year, allowing me a "buy one get one" deal for any trip. This was back in 2019, in the “before times”. This pass represented an epic 9 months of weekend trips! I was able to remotely work Friday or Monday at work, and that allowed me to make evening plans jumping from airport to airport, setup at a hotel or library, and be ready for my workday. From anywhere!
Travel all abruptly ended in 2020 when the pandemic brought the world to a screeching halt. Especially travel, which is how the disease spread so quickly across nations. I was more cautious than most and resisted the urge to “catch up” on travel in the aftermath of the disease, when history shows further waves of COVID were being passed asymptomatically between communities by world travelers.
Once the dust truly settled on the pandemic years, I decided to take my first ever "sabbatical". I worked summers as a kid, so I didn't know a true long "summer vacation" before 2023. I never took a "gap year" after college like some do. Religious orders take "retreats" which I've never known. And truth be told, I sometimes wonder if my generation will ever really retire, with the way some things are going.
So in the year 2023, as people started to resume their normal lives, it seemed like a perfect time to take a sabbatical from professional life to see what the world had to offer.