And Here We Are (Brace Yourself, it's Long)
So we have been officially living in Boston for a little over a week now. Finally, I am feeling a little bit more settled. It has taken quite a bit of stress and anxiety to get to this point though.
About six months ago, we had the first conversation about putting my dream into a reality. And it's been really interesting how everything has grown and evolved into what it is today. I can still remember how I felt the day my boyfriend told me that he wanted to quit his job and come traveling with me. I was overwhelmed with joy and excitement, a little nervous, and trying not to get my hopes up too much, in case he got scared and backed out. But the more we started talking about it, the more I realized that he wasn't kidding about this.
First we decided that we would be gone long enough to do two contracts (about six months). That way, his career and income would not be compromised too much (i.e. since he might potentially be whittling away all of his saved up income if he couldn't find a decent temporary job, and the resume gap wouldn't be too terrible). Then, we decided that we would plan to leave around the same time as when the lease on our apartment would be up, so we knew we would have plenty of time to plan. (haha, at least we thought we knew) But in the beginning stages, we mostly talked about where we wanted to go. We discussed numerous places including, but not limited to, Charleston, Chicago, San Francisco, New York, Boston, San Diego, and Providence. Finally, we decided that we wanted to go to either Boston or Providence in the fall, and San Diego in the spring.
You might ask "How did they choose those destinations?" Well, we both really loved the thought of going to San Diego, because we've always heard about how beautiful it is and how great the weather is. Also, part of the whole reason behind this is to be able to live in and see parts of the country we had never seen before. And the other reason is, why the hell not? Plus, I do actually have a half brother, who I only get to see like once a year, that lives there. The "Boston or Providence" idea first came up because my sister is going to school in Providence at RISD. Plus, my entire mom's side of the family lives in New Hampshire and Vermont. My mom actually grew up in a suburb of Boston, and my dad went to Berklee College of Music in Boston. So maybe I just wanted to see where the magic all began. As far as the "Boston or Providence" decision, well we all know how that turned out. We ended up in Boston because it just so happened that the majority of the choices for jobs were in Boston. And anyway, it's only like 45 minutes away from Providence, so I will still get to see my sister pretty often too (I hope).
So the easy part of the decision was the "who, what, when, and where." Next, all we had to figure out was how. And here's one of the many catches in the whole travel nursing business: You don't usually ever have the job nailed down until a few weeks before you actually have to leave. At earliest, you might have found a job 6 weeks early, but that would be just pure luck. Just in case, I told my recruiter about 2 months early what our plan was, so she could keep her ear to the grindstone. About six weeks before our proposed moving date, my file had been sent out to several hospitals. I waited and waited, and nobody even called for interviews.
Then all of a sudden it was a month before we were supposed to leave, and still I had nothing. I didn't even have a nursing license for MA or RI. Here's yet another catch of travel nursing: You have to have a separate nursing license for each state you work in. And believe me, you will shell out some money for it. Since it seemed like all the jobs were in Boston, I went ahead and sacrificed 200 big ones for the license there. But at that point in the game, I wasn't even sure I would get the license in time because it could take up to 6 weeks just waiting for all the red tape to clear before you even receive a license there!
Next thing I knew, it was 2 weeks before the last day of my job in Atlanta, 1 week before my boyfriend's last day at his job, and 3 weeks before we would be kicked out of our apartment and onto our asses into the street! (Yeah, it's a good thing we had all that time to plan things out.) So of course we had told all of our friends and family about our big adventure, and every time we saw them, they would ask what the plan was. Well, we still didn't have a plan of course. It was around this time, there was so much pressure to have a plan that we weren't even close to having, that I pretty much had a nervous breakdown (OK, maybe it wasn't that dramatic, but I definitely fried out, broke down, and had a big old cry.) Of course, my boyfriend was very supportive and tried his hardest to make me feel better, but it's very hard to feel better when you are facing being jobless and homeless in less than a month.
As usual, just when everything looks the most bleak, things start to get better. The next week I finally started interviewing, and after much debate and negotiation, I finally had my job nailed down exactly one week before we were moving out of our apartment! I mean seriously, I admit to being a procrastinator, and I'm used to doing things last minute, but I really hope it never gets that down to the wire ever again. Like, this is real, life stuff I'm talking about here, not a stupid paper that I could write the night before! Anyway, we managed to pack all of our shit up (and damn we have A LOT of shit) and put most of it into storage to stay while we are going to be gone. The rest we brought with us. Sure it sounds easy, but why don't you try to pack for living the next six months in two completely different climates?!
Once I got the job nailed down, and I finally recieved my nursing license in the mail that week, then we had to figure out our living situation. Yet, another catch in the "exciting and exotic" world of travel nursing: Sure, they will provide you with a fully furnished apartment for the time during which you are contracted. To them this means that you can move into your housing 48 hours before the start date of the contract. However, if you move in earlier than that you have to pay extra by the day. Sooo, guess what? Our lease was up at the end of September, and my contract did not start until two weeks later. (I know, you're thinking this story never ends... believe me, so did we.) Luckily, we have some awesome friends that were nice enough to let us crash with them for a week. And, also as lucky, I convinced my recruiter that we really needed to get up to Boston early to figure out how to get around and where stuff is before my contract started, and that they should pay for a hotel room for us until we could move into our apartment. And they did.
The last thing we had to figure out was how to physically get us, our stuff, and our cat, up here. The original plan included leaving my car in Atlanta and towing a trailer full of all of our crap with my boyfriend's car. Well we figured out almost a little too late that that was really a bad idea. We also found out that it would be $150 a month just to park his car in the parking deck of our apartment, and that we probably wouldn't really be needing a car thanks to our pimp ass apartment location in the middle of downtown Boston (close to all four branches of the subway). And so, in a final act of desperation, we rented a minivan, completely jampacked it with all of our crap, and drove the 20 hour drive to Boston.
So, long story short (yes, this is the short version of the story), we're here! And here's what I've learned in the last six months, in no particular order:
1. I will never doubt my boyfriend again. When he says he's doing something, he ain't kidding!
2. Travel nursing may not be what it's cracked up to be, but I still think it's pretty cool
3. We have A LOT of shit! But....
4. It's amazing what you can fit into a 10' x 15' storage space
5. Never underestimate what your recruiter can do for you
6. Things always get worse before they get better
7. Never underestimate the number of times your cat can meow during a 20 hour road trip, even when prepared with cat sedatives
8. Always appreciate your friends and family, the time you have with them, and the things they will do to help you out when you are in a bind
9. Have faith in what can be accomplished by two people that are in a good relationship
10. And, last but not least, listen to your mother. The wisest thing she's ever told me is that plans don't always work out like you thought they would.
So anyway, here's to the ever-evolving plan called "my life." Whenever everything is just going all wrong, everyone always says "It'll all work out, one way or another." Well even though it's such a cliche now, and may sound insincere, it's true. Everything always works out. I guess I should listen to my sister too, because when I was freaking out about all this stuff a couple of weeks ago, that's exactly what she said. Except hers was more like "You know, it has to work out, because if it doesn't, then you would just be dead." It sounds morbid, but she's right. The only way it doesn't work out, one way or another, is if you die. And well, I'm just not ready to die yet.
About six months ago, we had the first conversation about putting my dream into a reality. And it's been really interesting how everything has grown and evolved into what it is today. I can still remember how I felt the day my boyfriend told me that he wanted to quit his job and come traveling with me. I was overwhelmed with joy and excitement, a little nervous, and trying not to get my hopes up too much, in case he got scared and backed out. But the more we started talking about it, the more I realized that he wasn't kidding about this.
First we decided that we would be gone long enough to do two contracts (about six months). That way, his career and income would not be compromised too much (i.e. since he might potentially be whittling away all of his saved up income if he couldn't find a decent temporary job, and the resume gap wouldn't be too terrible). Then, we decided that we would plan to leave around the same time as when the lease on our apartment would be up, so we knew we would have plenty of time to plan. (haha, at least we thought we knew) But in the beginning stages, we mostly talked about where we wanted to go. We discussed numerous places including, but not limited to, Charleston, Chicago, San Francisco, New York, Boston, San Diego, and Providence. Finally, we decided that we wanted to go to either Boston or Providence in the fall, and San Diego in the spring.
You might ask "How did they choose those destinations?" Well, we both really loved the thought of going to San Diego, because we've always heard about how beautiful it is and how great the weather is. Also, part of the whole reason behind this is to be able to live in and see parts of the country we had never seen before. And the other reason is, why the hell not? Plus, I do actually have a half brother, who I only get to see like once a year, that lives there. The "Boston or Providence" idea first came up because my sister is going to school in Providence at RISD. Plus, my entire mom's side of the family lives in New Hampshire and Vermont. My mom actually grew up in a suburb of Boston, and my dad went to Berklee College of Music in Boston. So maybe I just wanted to see where the magic all began. As far as the "Boston or Providence" decision, well we all know how that turned out. We ended up in Boston because it just so happened that the majority of the choices for jobs were in Boston. And anyway, it's only like 45 minutes away from Providence, so I will still get to see my sister pretty often too (I hope).
So the easy part of the decision was the "who, what, when, and where." Next, all we had to figure out was how. And here's one of the many catches in the whole travel nursing business: You don't usually ever have the job nailed down until a few weeks before you actually have to leave. At earliest, you might have found a job 6 weeks early, but that would be just pure luck. Just in case, I told my recruiter about 2 months early what our plan was, so she could keep her ear to the grindstone. About six weeks before our proposed moving date, my file had been sent out to several hospitals. I waited and waited, and nobody even called for interviews.
Then all of a sudden it was a month before we were supposed to leave, and still I had nothing. I didn't even have a nursing license for MA or RI. Here's yet another catch of travel nursing: You have to have a separate nursing license for each state you work in. And believe me, you will shell out some money for it. Since it seemed like all the jobs were in Boston, I went ahead and sacrificed 200 big ones for the license there. But at that point in the game, I wasn't even sure I would get the license in time because it could take up to 6 weeks just waiting for all the red tape to clear before you even receive a license there!
Next thing I knew, it was 2 weeks before the last day of my job in Atlanta, 1 week before my boyfriend's last day at his job, and 3 weeks before we would be kicked out of our apartment and onto our asses into the street! (Yeah, it's a good thing we had all that time to plan things out.) So of course we had told all of our friends and family about our big adventure, and every time we saw them, they would ask what the plan was. Well, we still didn't have a plan of course. It was around this time, there was so much pressure to have a plan that we weren't even close to having, that I pretty much had a nervous breakdown (OK, maybe it wasn't that dramatic, but I definitely fried out, broke down, and had a big old cry.) Of course, my boyfriend was very supportive and tried his hardest to make me feel better, but it's very hard to feel better when you are facing being jobless and homeless in less than a month.
As usual, just when everything looks the most bleak, things start to get better. The next week I finally started interviewing, and after much debate and negotiation, I finally had my job nailed down exactly one week before we were moving out of our apartment! I mean seriously, I admit to being a procrastinator, and I'm used to doing things last minute, but I really hope it never gets that down to the wire ever again. Like, this is real, life stuff I'm talking about here, not a stupid paper that I could write the night before! Anyway, we managed to pack all of our shit up (and damn we have A LOT of shit) and put most of it into storage to stay while we are going to be gone. The rest we brought with us. Sure it sounds easy, but why don't you try to pack for living the next six months in two completely different climates?!
Once I got the job nailed down, and I finally recieved my nursing license in the mail that week, then we had to figure out our living situation. Yet, another catch in the "exciting and exotic" world of travel nursing: Sure, they will provide you with a fully furnished apartment for the time during which you are contracted. To them this means that you can move into your housing 48 hours before the start date of the contract. However, if you move in earlier than that you have to pay extra by the day. Sooo, guess what? Our lease was up at the end of September, and my contract did not start until two weeks later. (I know, you're thinking this story never ends... believe me, so did we.) Luckily, we have some awesome friends that were nice enough to let us crash with them for a week. And, also as lucky, I convinced my recruiter that we really needed to get up to Boston early to figure out how to get around and where stuff is before my contract started, and that they should pay for a hotel room for us until we could move into our apartment. And they did.
The last thing we had to figure out was how to physically get us, our stuff, and our cat, up here. The original plan included leaving my car in Atlanta and towing a trailer full of all of our crap with my boyfriend's car. Well we figured out almost a little too late that that was really a bad idea. We also found out that it would be $150 a month just to park his car in the parking deck of our apartment, and that we probably wouldn't really be needing a car thanks to our pimp ass apartment location in the middle of downtown Boston (close to all four branches of the subway). And so, in a final act of desperation, we rented a minivan, completely jampacked it with all of our crap, and drove the 20 hour drive to Boston.
So, long story short (yes, this is the short version of the story), we're here! And here's what I've learned in the last six months, in no particular order:
1. I will never doubt my boyfriend again. When he says he's doing something, he ain't kidding!
2. Travel nursing may not be what it's cracked up to be, but I still think it's pretty cool
3. We have A LOT of shit! But....
4. It's amazing what you can fit into a 10' x 15' storage space
5. Never underestimate what your recruiter can do for you
6. Things always get worse before they get better
7. Never underestimate the number of times your cat can meow during a 20 hour road trip, even when prepared with cat sedatives
8. Always appreciate your friends and family, the time you have with them, and the things they will do to help you out when you are in a bind
9. Have faith in what can be accomplished by two people that are in a good relationship
10. And, last but not least, listen to your mother. The wisest thing she's ever told me is that plans don't always work out like you thought they would.
So anyway, here's to the ever-evolving plan called "my life." Whenever everything is just going all wrong, everyone always says "It'll all work out, one way or another." Well even though it's such a cliche now, and may sound insincere, it's true. Everything always works out. I guess I should listen to my sister too, because when I was freaking out about all this stuff a couple of weeks ago, that's exactly what she said. Except hers was more like "You know, it has to work out, because if it doesn't, then you would just be dead." It sounds morbid, but she's right. The only way it doesn't work out, one way or another, is if you die. And well, I'm just not ready to die yet.
posted by Bean at
12:48 AM
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