I enjoy hiking, travel, and living life a little differently than most. I find myself drawn to unconventional living – particularly tiny houses and van life. In 2015, after almost 12 years in the military, I took a year off for travel and made my first adventure into van life. I spent the summer driving around the country, waking up in a new place each morning, and spending almost every day hiking in National Parks. It was the happiest I’ve ever been in my entire life. The freedom that comes with living on the road and going wherever life takes you simply can’t compare to anything else. The added benefit of no rent or bills, well, that’s just a bonus.
I spent the following four years working a normal office job. Didn’t even do any travel. In the beginning, I worked on building a tiny house. A couple years later, life threw me a curve ball that put me in the ICU. I spent the following year recovering and taking things easy. The whole ordeal re-awoken the desire to experience as much of life as I could before it was too late. I started back up on checking things off my bucket list and by the end of 2019 I quit my job, moved to Colorado, and started work at a new company.
The new job’s location made it an awesome place to do a lot of travel from. With 19 National Parks in a 12 hour radius, it was incredible. I spent my weekends driving around the state (and outside of the state) having mini vacations. The COVID-19 scare caused the company I work for to allow us to “work from anywhere,” which has made it my dream job. Within weeks of that announcement, I gave up my apartment, changed my residency, drove across the country, and began planning my next phase of travel. I built a small sleeping area in my Jeep and intend to travel the country again, working from the road, and waking up in new places once more. It is truly, truly incredible to have basically stumbled into this job and it’s all because I took a simple risk without having any plan as to what I was going to do.
If there’s something you want in life, go for it. Take the risk. Don’t let fear hold you back. In the end, things could work out better than you ever imagined.