LONG STORY SHORT By Kristine McGowan Three months into our engagement, I stumbled across an article that would impact nearly every decision we’d make over the next five years. It was clickbait. One of those promotional pieces that companies put out to show how great their product benefits their customers. It was published by a bank, though I can’t remember which one. I don’t even know how I found the article. I just remember lying in bed next to Jason, reading this story on my phone, and holding my breath. The story was about a married couple in their early 30s. They’d saved up enough money to take a year off and travel; they called it a “pretirement.” For a year, they lived out of their backpacks and carry-ons while flying all around Europe. For a year, they didn’t have a permanent address, but they saw more countries and cities than I’d seen in all my 25 years.
My first thought: I want to do this. My second: There’s no way he’ll go for it. Between my husband and me, I’m the bigger dreamer. My fantasies fall somewhere between just beyond practical and utterly hopeless. Growing up, I wanted to be a bestselling author who used her books and her wealth to make the world a better place (because J.K. Rowling’s such a fine example these days). Jason, on the other hand, wanted to be a sports writer. His feet were solidly on the ground while mine were trying to walk on water. So, when I showed him the story, I had his inevitable response queued up in my head already: This is cool, but we can’t afford it. We can’t quit our jobs. We can’t take that risk. As you might have guessed, he didn’t say that. Instead, he turned to me and said, “Oh my God. We could totally do this.” I’d never loved him more. Comments are closed.
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