This time last year we quit our jobs, rented and moved out of our house, packed up our RV, and started driving to Minnesota for a new life of itinerant travel nursing. With our first contract signed, and a mind full of naivety, nervousness, and excitement, we headed east into oblivion.
It was a bit of a rough start in many ways. We quickly adjusted to living in the fifth wheel, and had no issues with that aspect, probably because we have lived in RV's before and spent tons of time in them over the years after owning a class C motor home for a decade or so. The hard part was adjusting to the itinerant work flow of travel nursing and all the quirks that come with it. Learning the ropes of the business side of things, avoiding night shifts, finding contracts at hospitals that weren't third world horrific, etc. There was more than one occasion where we almost threw in the towel and headed home, but I feel we are well over those emotions now and life has become pretty smooth and stress free now.
Over the last six months our goals have evolved a bit too. Initially we were hell bent on saving every penny, working over time, and paying the house off as soon as possible. But we both kind of settled down and realized this 'lifestyle' was actually pretty awesome, and there is no need to rush through it like we were just serving time for a defined endpoint of paying the house off. Instead, we now look at it as a way to save far more than we would doing traditional work, with the added bonus of having tons of free time and the ability to take jobs near family that we don't get to see enough, or take jobs in places we'd likely never visit otherwise. Assuming all continues to go well, we will still pay the house off in 1/3rd the time it would take if we were both working in Utah, and in the meantime we get to spend more time together as a family, see more of our family that doesn't live in Utah, and see the country as we do it.
In summary, I think we finally learned to live in the moment, and not continually obsess about the next big step in life. In my opinion, there is a fine balance that needs to exist with those two emotions. If you don't plan for the future, you won't be prepared when it arrives. But if you obsess about the future all the time, you won't be alive during the present. I like the idea of blurring those emotions but focusing on the present and enjoying the moment. Cliche, yes. But sometimes cliches exist for a reason.
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