Here I begin the first blog post for my new grand life journey. You may remember me from my previous, high-traffic blogs called Journey of a Natureholic, I Love To Run, and Adventures of a Wild Mind. All attempts at discovering, capturing, and displaying to the world some part of me. Well, here I return--after years in graduate school--to write a blog about my quest toward freedom: early retirement.
I discovered this concept in a discussion with my mom on a road trip to the great corn state, Iowa. Looking at all that corn, your mind starts to think about things a bit deeper and you start to spontaneously perform mathematical calculations. I asked, why is it that people work so long in life? You see, I was contemplating my impending entry into the work world after 27 years of schooling, working minimal hours close to minimum wage, and/or working for free. I wondered, what will happen when I make a decent salary? What will I do with all that money? If I continued on spending as I currently was spending all through graduate school and earlier, I would have so much extra money that I would essentially have no reason to work longer than 10 years!
Well, those were very basic calculations and a number of obstacles have become apparent to me since that original corn-induced epiphany, but I still am pushing forward with big dreams. You see, without hope that these big dreams are possible, I become very down and depressed. I have no real zest for life otherwise. Because working to me for 40+ years seems absolutely unbearable. Working that long without a break longer than a two week vacation would mean giving up on so many plans for my life. And I only have one life. The prospect of that is absolutely intolerable to me. I will not sell my life away!
Which is why I am here starting this blog currently. You see, my profession is a physical therapist and I have been working at my first job for a little over two months. The hours are longer than I would like, and I have so little time to do everything I want to do that I am constantly frustrated and deprived of time for my personal endeavors. So tonight I decided to ignore all the unsigned notes I had to finish and start this blog. To celebrate my creativity, my ingenuity, my drive, and my determination to be free!
