Hey there, we’re Heather & Mike, a couple from Vancouver, British Columbia who are taking a year off work to see the world. In case you’re not acquainted with us already, here’s a little bit about our story.
A couple years ago (in 2015) we got married, and when you get married you naturally start to talk more with your partner about what the rest of your life together is going to look like. You talk about your hopes, your dreams, your priorities. We’re in our 30’s now, but have always been the kind of people who did what we were ‘supposed’ to do. We got straight A’s in highschool; then we went to good universities; then we got jobs and worked hard to get promoted; then we kept on doing that and made a bunch of money for about a decade. Then at some point we started asking ourselves “Is this it?”. The prospect of continuing down this path for another 20+ years so we could finally start to really enjoy ourselves in retirement started to sound a little depressing.
Don’t get us wrong, we enjoy work, and by most standards we’re pretty good at it. Before we left our jobs to take this trip, Mike was a Senior Developer for a mid-sized software company and Heather was a Marketing Manager in the travel industry. Leaving jobs that we’d worked very hard to be successful at was not easy to do. The thought of having no income, no home, and a resume gap to explain in a year’s time is still somewhat terrifying. But for us, the status quo was more scary. So sometime during our honeymoon while hiking around a national park in Northern Finland, we started to craft a plan to turn this pie-in-the-sky travel dream into reality.
Upon hearing about our trip, a lot of people have said “You guys are so lucky you get to do this!” and while it’s true that we are lucky in many ways (we’ve both had pretty privileged upbringings that set us up for success), luck really wasn’t a factor in making this trip happen. We had a big idea, a disciplined savings plan and the courage to follow through.
So now, two years after that fateful Finnish hike, we’re Way Out of Office (which coincidentally shortens to WOOO!) on the trip of a lifetime. You can check out our itinerary here and follow along on our blog throughout our journey if you’d like.
Thanks for stopping by!