A Simpler Life: Making the Change

I took my first trip overseas when I graduated high school. I was lucky enough to see England and France, and it forever changed my plans and perceptions. It immediately made me aware that venturing out was not only possible, but also much easier than I had realized. I returned on my own as soon as I was able and fell in love with the Eastern European way of living. I spent pretty much all my efforts throughout nursing school and after finding ways back to the city and work I fell in love with in Bucharest. I loved walking to work, taking public transportation, eating my meals from the corner market and picking up bread on my way back from the same bakery every day. When I settled back in the states I thought I was only going to be back for a short time to earn enough money to head back to Romania for as long as possible. In my time back I reconnected with my my very first love who I had not spoken to for years and in short order married him and had our first little one Hank. I looked for that same feel of living, hoping urban life would offer the same feel, and at times it does. I love living in cities with public transportation, trains to take, walkable neighborhoods, and good food.While I felt it might be possible to for us to travel the idea of living overseas seemed like a foregone conclusion.
Five years ago I started reading about families that take a gap year, it immediately called back all my longings for adventures, a different way of living, and a different experience for our kids. However, most families taking gap years seemed to either have assets that allowed for them to do so financially, or had careers that made it possible to work from the road. It wasn't until more recently the idea that moving towards a different way of living became something we really agreed and shared the same vision for, and all my old thoughts of how doable travel and living in other countries can be. There is no reason for us not to be a nurse and a paramedic in Cambridge instead of being a nurse and a paramedic in Nashville. Really one just has to start taking the steps to do it. I was only 17 when I took my first trek to England and France on a chaperoned trip with a rather intense southern baptist christian school, it was only 6 months before I made my second excursion by myself and fell fully in love with all the aspects of life in Bucharest, I immediately tried (unsuccessfully) to extend my trip and stay through Christmas, and soon felt I never wanted to leave. Taking the steps and working towards moving to Cambridge feels like answering the call to a part of myself that I had turned away from and in a sense given up on for now, but once pulled back out into the light, all my affection for this part of who I am is as strong as it ever was. All we have to do is take the steps to make the change in where we are to where we want to be.