I had already decided that this would be the year. After 19 years of saving toward early retirement / full-time travel, I can't wait any longer. Then a bit of tragedy struck and I lost my best friend, my mom. I wasn't sure how that would effect my desire to leave. Would it cause me to want to stay and be close to my sister and my friends? Nope, it just secured the whole "life is short" credo. More than ever, I have to do this.

I happen to be going into the office one day for a client meeting, so the night before, I made the decision to give my notice. If I'm going to do this, i have to actually make a move in that direction. I did it. I cried. I came home super excited.

Make a To Do list. Everything from invest money, look into travel insurance, get my eyeglasses fixed. get rid of (almost) everything.

I'm starting to feel overwhelmed.

I'm starting to cherish the "things" I have. I really have it made here. I can go into the fridge and grab whatever I want. I have everything I could possibly need to cook with. I'm really going to miss this avocado tool. My echo dot? This cooking spatula!

Where do I store it all? How much do I store? Where am I going to start?

I decided 1) that instead of saying "forever", I am saying "one year" to try it out. That's way less intimidating and also makes it a bit easier when thinking of how my current 10-year relationship is going to go because of all this. 2) I'm going to start easy. Although I want more than anything to just hit the road and start traveling around, I am going to go plant myself somewhere so that I can get this site in better shape. After all, it's my new hobby/livelihood and I have 19 years of travel info to get in here!

Since I decided to stay close for the first bit in the hopes of some people coming to visit me from the states, I started looking into Mexico and places I like in Central America. Roatan will be too expensive. Isla Mujeres, same thing. Holbox? Hmm, maybe too expensive too. I'm ruling out Panama because my ex has a place there.

I did a basic search on VRBO and on Booking.com for all of Costa Rica. I put in parameters for a kitchen and my price range and I went ahead and choose all of November in case any places offer a long-term discount. I zoomed in and out of different regions of the map, went through most of the suggested lodging (that weren't dorm beds), and found a few great contenders!! I'm getting pretty excited. I found three that are just outside of small towns, seem clean, in a pretty enough area, and are the right price range.

It's easy to think of excuses to put it off but I need to just start putting one foot in front of the other. My boyfriend is being beyond supportive and I don't know what I'd do without him. He knows I won't get everything taken care of at home before my proposed departure date and he told me to go anyway. Then I'll come back for the holidays and wrap things up then. Okay 1 ... 2 ... 3 ... here I go!!!