Leaving My Job to Full-Time in an RV
We’re quickly approaching our new lifestyle! Joelle is leaving her job and we’re in the RV, ready to travel the country! But before we head out, we want to share some deep intimate things with you.. some things we hold dear to us and have impacted our lives heavily. Thanks for reading!
I just put in my 2 weeks at Starbucks.
My experience with leaving any job and advice is to tell your coworkers at least 2-3 months ahead of time. I was surprised at how excited my coworkers were for me. Even my customers ask Justin and I about the RV and how it’s coming along. Telling people that early on gave me a chance to have this experience with others and really lets my mind gather around the fact that I’m really doing this. I found out that there weren’t many negative people with comments about traveling but, if there are, don’t let someone who gave up on their dreams talk you out of yours.
So let me break it down for you on what I’m leaving behind in Chesapeake, VA
I had moved here a little over a year ago from California with my ex-husband. He was in the military and was leaving for deployment last February. It wasn’t the best of relationships and I felt controlled.
A few months after he left, I started working at Starbucks and made my own money. Don’t get me wrong, Starbucks is not an easy job. I don’t recommend it for people who can’t brush off a naive customer with an EXTRA HOT latte saying “It’s too hot”. You have to love people with that kind of job. I have worked at Starbucks for about 10 months with some of the best people I have ever met to date, that’s a big reason on why I am sad to leave my job and travel. But I am excited to travel and meet more amazing and crazy people like us.
Where Justin comes into my life
This brings me to how I met Justin. I was covering for a friend at work and he happened to be there. He was already a regular customer but I had only met him once. I started talking with him near the end of my shift, so after my shift, I sat next to him. We talked for more than five hours after my shift ended and we haven’t left each others side ever since.
The moment that changed everything
When we had decided to travel, we had been dating for about 6 months (we’re going on 10 now). We can’t say it’s been easy, only after about 3 weeks from our decision to travel, we found out I was pregnant and that changed a few of our ideas on what we needed to do for being full-timers. We didn’t let it impact our decision to travel though. We had so much to do with finding an RV at the time. Our original idea was to get something small and simple for ourselves and our dog. With a baby in mind, we suddenly were thinking about larger RVs that had bunkhouses and areas for a small crib.
We were making doctor appointments for the baby we thought was on his/her way but it wasn’t meant to be for us at the time. Sadly 4 weeks later we had a miscarriage. Because of this we ended up buying a smaller RV to start our journey. We had to move on from losing a baby, and it wasn’t an easy time in our lives… But life had to go on. Instead of dwelling on the past, we’ve decided to move forward. Now we’re putting our attention on the travels and adventures we are going to experience while RVing.
A message from Justin.
“I edit Joelle’s posts on the blog and when I read this, I started tearing up. Just reading over the thought that this happened puts me into tears. Joelle’s such a strong woman and although we have moved very quickly in our relationship, I’ve never been so happy with someone. She’s opened a new world to me. The names we were looking at, so we never forget, were Theodore and Rebecca. May he/she rest in peace. You will always be in our minds and never forgotten. And Joelle, when you read this, just know that I love you and although it’s hard for me to talk about, I’m always thinking about it.”
Our mission is to create new memories.
So for us this place is very memorable, for the good and the bad. Now, we would like to make some new memories in other parts of this country. It’s not the reason we decided to full-time but the idea of living life to the fullest and enjoying the experiences is now in reach.
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