The Great Escape: Two Years Later

TWO YEARS.

Two years ago we exploded our life and moved to the woods. Feel free to get caught up here.

I think we’ve finally come to the end of The Great Escape experiment. Thank God!

In 2022 when we decided to sell our house, put all of our shit in PODS, quit my job, and move to the woods it was because I was burnt out, depressed, and wanted a less stressful life. I wanted to be able to go outside without melting, to walk to cute shit in town, and live in a historic home, or at least something old and cool.

We looked for houses for a solid two years. We saw dozens, put offers on a handful, and second offers on a few, and nothing worked out.

I decided to look for a job in a few other cities and then move wherever I got a job. I had a whopping two interviews in person and one online. Nothing. I got a seasonal remote job scoring standardized math tests for middle school-aged students and resigned myself to living with my parents forever.

Then I had an insane stroke of luck when a friend from my old job told me his department was hiring. It’s based in Florida (the same college where I worked before), so we had to move back, but it’s remote. I can still travel with Christopher for his work and visit my parents when it’s too hot or there is a hurricane in FL, or when it snows in VA. It’s only been a month in this job but I like it a lot. The team is incredible, the leadership is amazing, and the work is nerdy and interesting.

In the two years since we “escaped,” we’ve been lucky enough to do a lot of traveling. We visited Michigan, Ontario, Canada, Alaska, Washington, South Carolina, Knoxville & Nashville, Kentucky, New Mexico, Colorado, Rhode Island, Georgia, North Carolina, California, Iowa, Minnesota, Texas, West Virginia, Indiana, and Ohio.

We saw the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, the Gulf of Mexico, and Lakes Michigan, Huron, and Erie.

I haven’t walked to a ton of places in town, because I am clumsy as fuck and have fallen a couple of times, so I gave up the brick sidewalks for my trusty Jetta.

Escaping FL didn’t make life any less stressful. Life was just stressful in a different way. I didn’t have to deal with going to a job I hated and we lived in perfect weather, but we didn’t find a house, all of our stuff is still in storage, none of our favorite places were in VA, and 90% of our favorite people weren’t either. Deciding to move back to FL was tough, but being near our favorite places and more of our favorite people will be worth the sweat. Plus with both of us working remotely, we can visit the perfect weather anytime.

The worst part of the last two years was losing Lucy last month. Obviously, that didn’t have anything to do with our great escape, but we’re heartbroken not having her with us for this next chapter.

There are so many things I would have done differently if I knew then what I know now. But that’s not how life works. I am trying very hard not to regret our choice to blow up our lives, but it was ridiculous.

I’m grateful for the experiences we got to have during this little experiment, but I am looking forward to having a slightly more normal lifestyle and some structure.