The Wild Rose

As of 5:10pm today, both of us Britts are on US soil. After 12 months and 15 days, 2 countries, thousands of miles (and dollars), several new friends and countless memories later, our year abroad is over. This past year has gone by incredibly fast, and yet we have grown more individually, and together, over the past 12 months than we have over the past 9 years that we’ve been together. We feel so much more mature and aware from being on the road for so long, and it’s given us an entirely new outlook on life. Between Finland and India we’ve done some amazing things, met some wonderful people, found ourselves in incredibly awkward situations, came the closest to death that we’ve ever been, but mainly we’ve come to realize how fortunate we are to have the opportunity to do all of this. We’ve been able to do more in our short lives than most people get to do in a lifetime, and we are so tremendously grateful.

Now, all of that isn’t to say that we are done traveling. Quite the contrary. We’ve got a few trips planned, all within the US borders, for this next month, but it looks as if we will be moving back overseas in the near future for more of a permanent duration (several years) for Britt’s job. We’re not sure what country we’ll be moving to, or how soon we’ll be leaving, but until we do know we’re here in our hometown near Chicago, on our toes! But before we start worrying/planning on our next big move, we have to get Britt acclimated to being home, and nothing says “Welcome home to Chicago” like a a good ole’ Chicago-style hot dog!