Wednesday, 01-May-2024
Everything I’ve been writing has led up to this point.
Everything I’ve been generally planning for the last 5 months, and specifically planning for the last 2 months, was in preparation for this singular moment.
Planning, preparing, making ready and laying the groundwork for one simple action – stepping out of a car, hefting some bags, and walking up to a plane.
Let’s start at the beginning, a bit of a recap.
In 2021, I gained my dual citizenship between the United States, and Austria.
In 2022, I applied to various universities around the world for their MBA programs. I was accepted to Trinity College in Dublin, and deferred my admission until 2024.
Around October of 2023, I gave my manager at Raytheon an ultimatum – I get promoted by the beginning of January, or I leave.
In January of 2024, I still hadn’t gotten a promotion.
In mid February of 2024, I turned in my 2-weeks notice. This was somehow a complete surprise to my manager.
March and April of 2024 are spent relaxing and preparing for my imminent departure from the United States, for at least a year but likely longer.
Now, what exactly is my itinerary? Well, I’ll be visiting:
- Nuuk, Greenland
- Reykjavik, Iceland (and the rest of Iceland, via camper-van)
- Oslo, Norway
- Stockholm, Sweden
- Helsinki, Finland
- Tallinn, Latvia
- Riga, Estonia
- Vilnius, Lithuania
- Warsaw, Poland
- Krakow, Poland
- Prague, Czechia
- Vienna, Austria
- Marseilles, France
- Cassis, France
- Zermatt, Switzerland
- Stuttgart, Germany
- Brussels, Belgium
- Dublin, Ireland
Each country and city will have a different amount of time that I’m there – for now, I’ll keep that as a surprise for those following along… but it varies between a two evenings in some places, to two weeks in others. There’s a sort of method to my madness, regarding duration, though I’d have a challenging time fully explaining it in retrospect.
The key is that I spent time confirming it, and until I have reason to doubt my previous self… well, I have a simply massive document detailing where, when, how, and why I’m going to each place. How to get there, where I’m staying, what I’m doing (in some cases). Mostly, I’m excited to explore and decompress. To let myself stretch out, explore new places, and meet new people.
It will be glorious, but the first step is the simplest.
I stepped into the airport.
