I learned pretty quickly that the life of a road warrior is not all that it's cracked up to be. Yes, I have gotten to travel to some pretty awesome places, but it's difficult to go out and site see when you just got done working a 10+ hour day. I'm pretty much throwing my money away to a landlord of what I call the most expensive storage unit I've ever owened (AKA: my apartment). Oh, and how could I forget the all of the friends I've had to leave behind on a weekly basis (my roomate, boyfriend, and best friend from college count as a lot, right?)
All of the friends I have, or the lack there-of, is one of the reasons I had such strong feelings about transferring to a new position within my company. It's nearly impossible to maintain personal relationships with anyone when your life story is pack > travel > work > travel >laundry > repeat. It's also impossible to maintain personal relationships when you have an unhappy work environment.
My jobs requires me to work in service and parts departments within car dealerships. For those of you that do not frequent those, the personell there are typically older and technologically illiterate. I go in to dealerships and change the processes of these old men and try to teach them how to use a computer system they truly could care less about. I cannot tell you the amount of times I've been yelled at, cursed at, or completely blown off. Gets old after awhile. As a result, I was wasting all of my positive energy during the work day to keep a smile on my face so when I got back to the hotel at night and tried to maintain what few personal relationships I did have, I wasn't always the nicest person. I was tired and exhausted and wanted nothing more than to go to bed. I had become a product of my environment and constantly complained, whined, and got snarky with people who didn't do anything to deserve it. Red light.
Fortunately I have come into a bit of luck and with the new year am starting my new position. As a tribute to the past year and a half, I would like to recount my favorite places that my job took me.
1. Suburbs of DC
I got to visit DC suburbs on multiple occasions, specifically Bethesda, MD, Silver Springs, MD, and Arlington, VA, all of which were awesome. While I only spent a little time in DC, I preferred it to New York City. It was busy without being too overwhelming. The suburbs were all very trendy areas in which fitness and nutrition seemed to be a big part of daily life. There is so much to do and see, I feel like it would be impossible to get bored. Not to mention I absolutely love their public transportation.
2. NYC
While I would never wish it upon anyone to be sent to NYC for work, I would love to go back and visit it on my own time. Walking across the Brooklyn Bridge at dusk was majestic and I wouldn't trade that experience for anything. And please, a round of applause I survived two weeks in the city with 0 car accidents. There's so much diversity and ethnicity, which is nice to be able to experience in the states, but as I mentioned earlier it's a bit overwhelming. I think culture shock more appropriately describes how I felt on my first day in the city. Crazy drivers, angry people, and a bunch of foreign foods. HELP ME!
3. Freeport, Maine
How could you not love a state in which the license plates read "Vacationland" and whose slogan is "The way life should be"? If you haven't been there, makes plans to go. Maine is GORGEOUS with all the foilage and obviously the beach. Don't forget to pick up a bag of Shaw's chocolate chip cookies! They're the BEST!
4. Sioux Falls, South Dakota
While I must admit that South Dakota was snowy and freezing cold (yes, as you can see I'm scraping ice off of the inside of my windshield) when I went, I'm not sure I'll ever make it back there, so I was fortunate for this opportunity. While I didn't get to see many sites, I really enjoyed the people and there was surprisingly a lot to keep one entertained as far as malls, theaters, restaurants.
5. Fort Wayne, IN
While all of these places I've mentioned thus far have had great cuisine (the true way to make my top 5 cities list) Fort Wayne, IN had the best food I've ever experienced, hands down (it helps when you ask someone who was a culinary student to make your food bucket list). From BBQ, to sushi, to Italian, and local diners, they were all AMAZING. My food bucket list definitely helped me survive my month-long trip in the freezing cold month of January.
