It’s a beautiful world. Travel often.
I’m Jill, a former travel nomad. Long story short, I created Chasing Adventure while my husband (Curtis) and I prepared for a worldly adventure. This blog was and is meant to serve as inspiration for other who want to live an unconventional life. Curtis and I had a grand plan, Freedom 35. Which simply means we wanted to live a life of freedom by age 35. And that happened. At 35, we had quit our jobs, sold everything, and were off on a never-ending adventure of world travel.
Fast forward 2 years. We were experiencing travel fatigue. We stopped enjoying the ride we were on. After much consideration, we decided to move back to Canada and live a “normal” life for awhile. Even though we don’t currently travel full-time, we still travel throughout the year from our home base.
I currently attend University to complete a B.Sc in Applied Human Nutrition while traveling throughout the year.
How did I get here?
I grew up in rural Nova Scotia, Canada. A place where children are allowed to safely roam free. A place that allowed me to grow into my natural curiosity for the world around me and encouraged me to dream. I wanted to “go west” before I fully understood where “west” was, so it only seemed fitting that I would grow up and move west. I spent most of my adult life in Calgary, Alberta where I was employed as a home designer (architectural technologist).
My career taught me that even though the blueprints I worked with were standardized, I loved making tweaks, moving things ever so slightly to make a plan more perfect in the the home buyers eyes. I loved to design.
It was during this time that I also realized I didn’t enjoy the 9-5 routine and being told what I should do and when I should do it. I craved a life designed by me, one where I could get up when I wanted, work when I wanted, travel when I wanted. Honestly, I craved freedom more than I craved chocolate (and that says a lot!).
Through a series of fortunate events, my husband and I decided to let our ship sail into open water. We sold everything. Our house, our possessions, our ability to think rational thoughts. We spent 2 years saving money and downsizing until everything we owned fit into backpacks. In February of 2015 we handed our house keys over to new owners, packed up Cindy (the cat) and started our adventure.
We traveled continuously for almost exactly 2 years. We road-tripped through the United States and Canada, spent 2 months experiencing life in Colombia, another 2 months hiking on Gran Canaria Island (Spanish island off the coast of Africa), took a cruise ship across the Atlantic Ocean, motorcycled around Europe and avoided snow almost the entire 2 years. The plan was to work online and continue to travel forever, however, travel is a wonderful teacher and we found less value in being homeless and free than we had anticipated. In 2017 we decided to call Halifax, Nova Scotia – home.
So what countries have I been to?
I don’t count countries, but I certainly like to color in the map as I go!
My travels have given me many experiences over the years:
- Motorcycling through Europe (x3)
- Ancient temples in Thailand
- Mayan Pyramids in Mexico
- Learning Spanish (very poorly) in Colombia
- Road tripping across the U.S.A and Canada (so many times!)
I’ve eaten amazing food in so many incredible places and climbed more Canadian mountains than I can count.
The more I travel, the more I realize that there are so many more places to go. I haven’t been everywhere (yet), but you can bet, it’s on my list.