The Travel Bug

Five or six months ago the travel bug hit me.

Hard.

I've never really thought that much about 'seeing the world'. Always been too busy, I guess. But our daughter LOVES to travel and in her final year at the University of Washington she won a prestigious scholarship that afforded her the opportunity to visit dozens of countries across a variety of continents, all in nine months, and all by herself.

When Autumn returned home she regaled us with amazing pictures and stories of her adventures. It was inspirational, to say the least.

A few years later we joined my parents on a Caribbean Cruise that took us to the Bahamas, Sint Maarten, the British Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and more.

Sint Maarten in the Caribbean

A few months after we returned from that cruise I read a book called The Four Hour Work Week, which extols the virtues of living overseas.

Seeds were being sewn.

At that point in my life I was pretty frustrated with my job so I posted on a popular "expat forum" to explore the idea of moving to Asia, Panama, Spain, or Mexico to be an "independent" game developer. But as it turns out you can't just move to some other country because you feel like it. And to be honest, I didn't know if Melanie and I were emotionally ready for a huge move like that anyway.

Today, everything changed.

I am no longer an employee of the company I worked at for nine years. Not sure what I'm going to do next but when my wife asked me: "If money was no object and you could do ANYTHING what would you pick?" My answer was: "I'd like to keep making games... and I want to travel!"

That reply sort of begged a new question: "What if I could find a game job somewhere in Europe? I could keep making games, I could experience a new country and culture, and I would have easy access to France, Italy, Ireland, and many other countries! Interesting...