While it may seem on the outside like Nick and I are traveling constantly, in all actuality, we are home in Portland and working more often than not.  And while we do both travel fairly consistently for work (me to Hawaii and Nick to Seattle), 85% of our time is spent at home in Portland, living our life and working.  And not long ago, I was having a conversation with some friends of ours about how as we get older, it seems our work load increases, our lives get busier and we have more responsibilities and it gets harder and harder to take time off, or even just time for ourselves.

Nick and I are insanely busy as of late, with multiple big project deadlines to make, all of our side projects and just general life upkeep like trying to make time for family and friends.  And when I’ve been trying to make time to plan some of our upcoming trips, it got me thinking, it’s getting really hard for us to travel as much as we’d like.  It’s getting really hard to schedule the time off of work, it’s getting really hard to find the time to plan these trips in the detail I’d really like to and it’s getting really hard to get everything done at home in order to be able to jet off somewhere amazing.  And I think there comes a time in many people’s lives like we are now, things start to slide off the priorities list.  But…. and that’s a big but…. I refuse to let that happen to travel in my life.

Yes, we are crazy busy.  Yes, we spend a lot of weekends at home in our office working.  Yes, I don’t have enough time in the day to do everything I want to.  And yes, I’m exhausted most days by 8pm.  But…. travel is the one thing that gets me out of the craziness of daily life.  Travel is the one thing that allows me to shut off, to not worry about the emails coming through or the phone calls that need to be made or the student work that needs to be graded.  Travel is the one thing that pulls me into my element fully, that makes my Type-A self step away and really see the world in a different way.

And so, the moral of this story is that even when life is crazy and when you feel pulled in a million different directions, be sure to keep your priorities in order so that you can be yourself and live life to the fullest.  Be sure to travel (if that’s what you want to do), to see the world, to step away from your phone and watch the sunrise over the Eiffel Tower or to wander the streets of Rome at sunset… both of which I hope to do on our trip to Europe where we are currently heading.  So, don’t let the craziness of planning and taking time off for vacations or travel let you stop doing them… we all need an escape every once in a while and travel is definitely that for me.  So if it is for you too, splurge on that dream trip or plan a small getaway in order to get back to taking time for yourself, because at the end of the day, we can only handle so much and sometimes it takes a step back to realize that.