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When I was a kid in New York, by around my birthday in mid-March, spring felt imminent. March in Minnesota typically feels more like proto-spring; much less evolved than the spring of my youth. Perhaps it is because I am at the cusp of a major move, perhaps it’s global warming, but as I sit here looking at buds on an Aspen, it feels like spring is early this year. As the year transitions into new growth and renewal, I can’t help but feel similar things about myself.
After the discussion two years ago with Sylvia, I began to put in motion the plans to actualize The Dream. Clearly, I’d need a boat and a way to support myself while cruising. I had just come through a year of major changes in my life. My oldest was on her second year of college, my youngest was wrapping up high school and working through crippling depression and anxiety, and my marriage of 25 years had ended. To steal a yoga concept, by spring 2019 I was starting to breathe into the expanded spaces I was finding and, perhaps far too slowly, I realized that my present job was a significant inhibiter to my growth and happiness. Pre-Covid pandemic, there seemed little chance that they would allow remote work and I was frankly pretty tired of it anyway. I began to actively search for something different and was lucky to find a 100% remote sales role at a major software company. By the end of 2019 I had checked off the first major milestone in the journey, I was free to live, and make my living, anywhere.
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