
We Have to Leave Anyway

Angie finishing her PhD is the perfect time for us to take off to see the world for a number of reasons. First, she will be unemployed after graduating. Sure, she could get a job in a heartbeat as her degree has no shortage of opportunities. We would have to relocate and find a new city to settle down in, but we don't want to do that just yet. Rather than not wanting to settle, which we will talk about later, this one is entirely due to the relocating bit.
Where we currently live (Pittsburgh, PA) is a great city and has a lot of the features we look for in a place to live - food choices, activities, and scenery are just a few to start. But unfortunately the one thing Pittsburgh does not have is a job for Angie. I did not have a problem getting a job here as my engineering degree is less focused than hers which allowed me to be a bit more open in the positions I applied for. Her job search would be restricted to a few select cities around the world and, sadly, Pittsburgh is not one of them. As she has the more advanced degree I must follow her and find a job later wherever we end up, and that means I'd have to quit my position in the process.
When posed with the idea of both of us being unemployed, taking a long-trip always seemed to click. When else do you get an option for such vacation time? After all, a 15 month trip is equivalent to 32 years of 2-week vacations, and we don't even want to consider the thought of working for 32 years to make up the difference.
We Really Don't Want to Work

At least, not yet anyway.
While I enjoyed my job during the two years I was there, Angie was getting completely burnt out of being in school for 9 continuous years. It is because of this that my joke "Buy 9 Years Get Your 10th One Free" in our announcement post becomes so appropriate. She can't do it anymore and just needs some time to be Angie the individual and not Angie the engineering student extraordinaire.
But don't take that to mean that we don't ever want to work. One day we will, and our trip will help us get prepared for it. If my last long-term trip is any indication we will both come back from this trip rejuvenated, ready to work, and with more motivation to succeed than we've ever had before. Of course we'll always want to travel once we do get jobs, but we'll have knocked off a fair bit of the world in the process making our future travel goals easier to complete with whatever vacation time we do get.
We Don't Know Where We Want to Live

As I mentioned previously, when we do get jobs it will be dictated on where Angie can find employment. Since those places are few and far between, our options are limited to just a few cities in the USA and a slightly larger handful internationally. The troubling thing about it is that we haven't been to any of the domestic ones, and only a handful of the international ones. As is the case for any city, we're picky on what we like and couldn't imagine moving somewhere without checking it out a lot in advance. Throw in the fact that we are also open to living abroad for a few years after this is all over with too and you have a nightmare of a headache from considering all of the options.
While we may not be able to hit many of the domestic cities that Angie could work at on this trip, we'll definitely be hitting most of the international ones. You could even say it is by design. Maybe one will pique our interest enough to establish a residency for a few years when our nomadic lifestyle is all over with, if it ever is over with in the first place. We'd be practicing engineers, but still continuing on with our travel desires at the same time. So will it be Switzerland, Singapore, Norway, Slovenia, Boston, Seattle, an island in the middle of the ocean where it is just the two of us and me running the desalination plant, or somewhere else completely new? We'll find out in a few years!
In any case, we're just not prepared to make that decision yet.
We Will Want Normalcy Eventually

So far a permanent nomadic lifestyle is an idea that we have not been especially fond of. Yes, the desire to see the world will never go away. And yes, we will always be visiting places; but we are engineers, and that means we need structure every now and again (and real health insurance, that too).
In a sense, it is unfortunate that we have worked so hard to become engineers only to want to go travel and see the world. The two lifestyles are definitely not the most compatible at times, especially when full-time jobs are factored in. But after 6 and 9 years of work towards our degrees it is something we just cannot give up forever. One day we will want to settle down, buy a house, get a few dogs (the most important part), and maybe even have kids (gasp). We'll probably return to being practicing engineers as running online websites is not as lucrative as you would imagine; even though we will never quit publishing new content for anyone who wants to read. For now engineering has helped us finance our travels, and it'll also be our backbone for financing the rest of our lives in and out of the travel world when the time comes.
Unless fate plays its hand or we are endowed with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a new career choice, this one appears unavoidable. But we're okay with that. Really! It doesn't mean that we cannot live somewhere awesome, maybe even abroad, take frequent vacations, and live our dream in the process. But after we get done with this trip it just may be a new dream that leads us into the future.
But for now we're going to forgo all of these thoughts and have an amazing time exploring the world, writing about it for everyone here, and doing our best to encourage you to turn off the computer and go exploring! If we can do that, well, we'll consider this site a success.
So help us out and go travel!
