WTF
What? Laid off? Key West Here I Come!
When I was young one of my favorite fantasies was to live on a tropical island. I had a picture in my head similar to Gilligan’s Island, complete with coconut phones, rope hammocks, and don’t forget Island Girls in Bikinis!
As a young man I remember seeing that movie Trading Places with Eddie Murphey and Dan Aykroyd. At the end of the movie, pineapple drinks in hand, they toasted one another, one of them on the beach, the other on a sailboat anchored off the beach. There were of course native women, beautiful blue water, nice white sand… and palm trees! Looked pretty much like the life to me.
Then there was that Duran Duran video on MTV.. RIO. You know.. the one where they’re frolicking on a sailboat crashing through the deep blue waters of the Caribbean. More native girls! More drinking! Sailboats!
Then came Leo DeCaprio in The Beach. Parties at night on a beautiful blue lagoon. Beautiful french girls in bikinis. Woah… NOW we were talking. Sign me up for THAT!
Well, somehow along the journey of growing up I settled in to just slogging through life. I got a responsible corporate job, had children, and went farther and farther into debt. I’d traded the Island dream for the American dream. Worst thing is, I don’t even remember doing it. It just kind of slipped away when I wasn’t looking.
I don’t want to bore you with the ancient history of the last 20 years of my life, and frankly I don’t need to relive it, so I’ll skip right to the end…
The economy crashed. I got laid off from my responsible corporate job after 16 years. My Girlfriend Christina got laid off from her corporate job. My ex-wife had long-since moved to New York with her new husband, and my son now flew in for holidays and summers. No more every weekend visits.
We were FREE!
So we sold just about everything we had (Including my car), rented out the house in Orlando, and moved to a small apartment in old town Key West! We’d already had a 10 year plan to semi-retire early and live on a sailboat, with a 5 year goal to move to either Key West or St Thomas. Well 5 years became immediately, and St Thomas was a pretty big leap, so here we are…. living in Key West a few years ahead of schedule, and loving every minute of it.
I’m dedicating this blog to all the friends and family we moved away from to chase our dream of a simpler, more satisfying life. Granted we’re still in the same state (for now anyway), but it feels like a different country.
I’m off to get my cheeseburger…
Mike.
Wow. Stumbled onto your site. I suffer from ADHD also but found my self able to read pages and pages right through. Maybe it is all the Adderal I have eaten since Friday tryinig not to think about my upcoming/unforseen divorce of a ten month marriage.
It was clear in many posts you thought about 86′ing the site. Hope you don’t. Think it is great! At 55, quit my job because of my wife, sold my car for my wife, gave away all my posessions when I first met my wife…I find myself who worked for an international company just a few months ago wihtout. Love the keys and feel this may be the only time in my life I could give it a go in the Keys.
Thanks so much for your site. Again I truly enjoyed.