I’m pretty sure growing up in the
idyllic Mayberry town in Southeast Kansas wanderlust was not a word in
my vocabulary. We spent most of our
summers at the lake (how do I miss those times now) and taking a big vacation
to St. Louis. The first time I was on a
plane was on the senior trip to Orlando.
I did attempt a big adventure back to Orlando my freshman year of
college. But wanderlust still hadn’t taken over and I returned back to my
comfort zone quickly. Shortly after that
I met a nice boy, had the fairy tale wedding and started imagining my 2.5
children and the white picket fence. But
over time I realized that wasn’t what I really wanted.
At 30, I
took a pretty big step out of my comfort zone and moved to Austin, Texas. The only time I’d been to Austin prior was
for a meeting spent in a conference room and dinner at the TGIFriday’s in my
hotel with coworkers old enough to be my grandparents. I had an acquaintance (who in time became my
family here) that helped me find an apartment from afar. I also had another coworker that moved down
at the same time as me and we were roomies for the first three months. But other than that, I was starting
completely over. And I knew it was what
I was supposed to be doing.
The last
3.5 years here have been some of the most difficult, some of the most exciting
and some of the most eye opening years of my life. I’ve made (and lost) some great friends. I completed my MBA. I had no choice but to learn to like myself,
because sometimes I was all I had here.
And the best thing that came from my move was the wanderlust. During an MBA trip to Washington D.C. I
realized I wanted to go abroad once I graduated. I quit my job at a company I’d been with for
13 years last September and have spent the last few months worrying my parents
I was going to end up having to move into their basement!
However,
that’s not going to be happening! I’m
going to be a long way from their basement.
I’ll be moving to Thailand the first part of April to teach English! I have to be in Bangkok by April 4th and will
spend 4 weeks in the beach city of Hua Hin doing the TEFL certification that is
required to teach English abroad. During that time I'll figure out what age
group and what part of the country I want to be in and work with an agency to
get a contract with a school.
I know that
the 18 year old Beth Ann that was ready to get out of that small town and start
college at Emporia State had no idea she’d eventually be moving to the other
side of the world. But that’s the beauty
of life! Everything that has happened
the last 16 years was preparing me for this next big adventure. And this next big adventure is just preparing
me for the many more ahead of me!
