Today is February 21, 2021.  It has officially been one year since I stopped working a traditional Monday-Friday job with an office.  On February 21, 2020, I packed my belongings from my office of 12 years into a storage bin and walked out the door.  I cried as I drove out of the parking lot.  I took a couple of months to get my bearings and then I started this blog.

As we grow older, our priorities in life change.  Things happen to us (or don’t happen to us) and we are affected in a million ways.  My husband had been taking out-of-town assignments with his company for over five years at that point.  We started slow and then then ramped up to the place where he accepted 6-month assignments.  This meant that we saw each other every 5 weeks or so.  We had learned that 5 weeks was our personal limit.  We couldn’t bare it longer than that.  He adores his job and I wanted him to have the opportunity to experience it to the fullest.  This meant being okay with him living on the island of Maui for 6 months without me.  This meant being okay with him living in Italy for 6 months without me. 

I wouldn’t change it.  I am glad we did it.  I am also glad that one day he looked at me and said, “It’s your turn.”  He felt it was my turn to go try, do, experience, and most of all, to write.

In the “About Me” section, I write about being bold for the first time.  Well, I was bold and it didn’t work out exactly as I planned, but great things still happened this year.

I was not expecting to go on the road with him for three weeks and then have the stuff of Hollywood movies (i.e., international germs) shut down the entire world.  We expected to see a new U.S. city together every week and instead, we spent 9 of the last 12 months sheltering in place.  And you know what?  That’s okay.

We were together.  Every night at dinner, he tells me about his clients, and I tell him about what I saw that day that will become travel article fodder.  I started a digital teaching career that makes me laugh every day.  I learned how to build a basic website.  Yes, it is plain, but it’s mine.  This blog has been a passion project and I have been rewarded with subscribers who follow me on my journeys (both the physical journey and the mental one). 

Charleston

During this last year, I also had one of my articles published by another media outlet.  Thank you to PassionPassport.com for their support of the travel industry and of freelance writers.  The article that they published is here:  Ex Libris, Libertas: How Books & Travel Are Similarly Inspirational (passionpassport.com).  I am currently in negotiations to have two more articles published as well.  I can officially say that I am a freelance travel writer now.  That is a big change in one year.

Much of my writing focused on the art and culture of the places I saw.  That’s just because that’s what I (as a traveler) am drawn to.  Brit Oie – An Asheville Artist Creating Mountain Experiences You Can Take Home – Mrs. HomeFree

I learned that my country is full of surprises. Thank goodness for that!  My Best Travel Surprises (so far)! – Mrs. HomeFree

I became a Marriott affiliate this year, which allows me to proudly tell all of you about the places I stay.  These are my homes away from home and they are an important part of the experience.  I hope that as the world opens up, you’ll try a few.

Blogging is a virtual community, and it is most fun when there is a two-way dialogue.  So, to all of you who have commented on posts: thank you.  I hope my readers will continue to be bold enough to share their travel experiences and questions with the community.  Mrs. HomeFree is about my journey, but it is also about other travelers and what they have seen, want to see, have read and want to read.  If you have a topic you want me to writer about, please say so.  I won’t always be able to accommodate everything, but I’ll do my best. 

Most of my subscribers have met me.  It might have been in my personal life, in a park, or at an attraction while I traveled.  This makes the blog unique in that you know you can trust the information.  I am a real person.  These experiences are my own unbiased, truthful experiences.  I hope that knowledge encourages subscribers to share posts with others.  With your support and action, I look forward to seeing this blog’s community grow.  I love learning from all of you and I thank you for subscribing and sticking with me.

Welcome to year two. . .