As I was working out the other day in the fanciest hotel gym I think I'll ever have the privilege of using, I was listening to Matt and Kim when the song "Wires" came on. The chorus came and belted out were the lyrics "cut and crossed wires/ electric fires/ reset your clocks/ and rewrite your thoughts". When I was picking the name of my blog back in 2012 for my time abroad, I just liked the line and found it applicable to my trip then; little did I realize that it would continue to foreshadow all the adventures after.
My first real time travel was 8 hours ahead to study abroad in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria my sophomore year of college; at the end of my semester, geographically, I went a little further to spend time with my family in Beirut, Lebanon. After coming home, I spent two years finishing my degrees in Kirksville, MO and living in CST. By the time graduation rolled around, I was in need of another adventure and decided to work my way through the US time zones from east to west as I cycled across America for affordable housing with Bike and Build. I came back to live with my parents and now my journey has taken another traveling turn the last seven months: I entered the somewhat exclusive world of business travel.
I am a corporate nomad. When people ask me what I do, that's how I answer because it's the easiest way to describe it. Every week, for the last six months, I have commuted 1,559 miles one way and jumped back two time zones, living Monday through Thursday on PST in Spokane, WA and Friday through Sunday in Kansas City on CST. I hopped on two planes twice a week that delivered me to my final destinations. I lived out of a suitcase and I ate exclusively at restaurants (that definitely hasn't helped my indecision).
Because of that, I can tell you all the good restaurants in the Minneapolis, Denver, and Salt Lake City airports and which terminals they are located in. Shelling out $85 on TSA Pre-Check was probably the best $85 I've ever spent. I stayed at the same (swanky, thanks to my client) hotel, the staff knew me by name, and I them. I got to drive a different car every week, dropping it off on Thursday always wondering what vehicle I'd get the following Monday. I'm enrolled in all the rewards programs and have pretty quickly acquired status for airlines, rental cars, and hotels.
While all that sounds really dreamy, it's not always fun. It's really hard on the body having to eat out for every meal. It's lonely sometimes; I got really lucky that the people I work with like to hang outside of work, sit on the patio, go to dinner, play frisbee, and explore the city. I get asked quite often if I'm sick of traveling yet, and though being on the physical plane is starting to get old-being cramped, it sometimes being smelly, sometimes getting stuck in the middle seat, the occasional screaming child-I really don't mind the travel. It's just something you have to get used to, but it's a great way to see the country while also making a living.
Though my time in Spokane has come to an end with a couple weeks in KC, I know that I still have a lot of travel in my future and I'm excited to see other parts of the country that I wouldn't get to travel to normally. My life motto when I set out to study abroad was "Adventure is out there" and while the purpose behind my travel has changed, the essence of being a corporate nomad still holds the excitement I felt as a leisure traveler-seeking adventure, making my dreams come true, and being able to stumble across the truly beautiful and unexpected.
My first real time travel was 8 hours ahead to study abroad in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria my sophomore year of college; at the end of my semester, geographically, I went a little further to spend time with my family in Beirut, Lebanon. After coming home, I spent two years finishing my degrees in Kirksville, MO and living in CST. By the time graduation rolled around, I was in need of another adventure and decided to work my way through the US time zones from east to west as I cycled across America for affordable housing with Bike and Build. I came back to live with my parents and now my journey has taken another traveling turn the last seven months: I entered the somewhat exclusive world of business travel.
I am a corporate nomad. When people ask me what I do, that's how I answer because it's the easiest way to describe it. Every week, for the last six months, I have commuted 1,559 miles one way and jumped back two time zones, living Monday through Thursday on PST in Spokane, WA and Friday through Sunday in Kansas City on CST. I hopped on two planes twice a week that delivered me to my final destinations. I lived out of a suitcase and I ate exclusively at restaurants (that definitely hasn't helped my indecision).
Because of that, I can tell you all the good restaurants in the Minneapolis, Denver, and Salt Lake City airports and which terminals they are located in. Shelling out $85 on TSA Pre-Check was probably the best $85 I've ever spent. I stayed at the same (swanky, thanks to my client) hotel, the staff knew me by name, and I them. I got to drive a different car every week, dropping it off on Thursday always wondering what vehicle I'd get the following Monday. I'm enrolled in all the rewards programs and have pretty quickly acquired status for airlines, rental cars, and hotels.
While all that sounds really dreamy, it's not always fun. It's really hard on the body having to eat out for every meal. It's lonely sometimes; I got really lucky that the people I work with like to hang outside of work, sit on the patio, go to dinner, play frisbee, and explore the city. I get asked quite often if I'm sick of traveling yet, and though being on the physical plane is starting to get old-being cramped, it sometimes being smelly, sometimes getting stuck in the middle seat, the occasional screaming child-I really don't mind the travel. It's just something you have to get used to, but it's a great way to see the country while also making a living.
Though my time in Spokane has come to an end with a couple weeks in KC, I know that I still have a lot of travel in my future and I'm excited to see other parts of the country that I wouldn't get to travel to normally. My life motto when I set out to study abroad was "Adventure is out there" and while the purpose behind my travel has changed, the essence of being a corporate nomad still holds the excitement I felt as a leisure traveler-seeking adventure, making my dreams come true, and being able to stumble across the truly beautiful and unexpected.
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