“You travel all the time!! What do you do for work?”

“Do you even work?”

“Are you ever home?”

“How do you have the money to travel so much?”

I can’t tell you how often I hear these questions and honestly after awhile it gets annoying. Not because it’s repetitive, but because it reminds me that people aren’t taught that they don’t have to live the boring-average-american life of sitting on their couch watching TV in their spare time.

But luckily, at this very moment, I am going to answer all the questions that haunt the people in my inboxes.
The answer is yes, I do work. I’m a drafter so I sit behind a desk and stare at a computer all day. If it’s a weekday, you’ll most likely find me sitting at home eating a pizza while staring at my phone. And I have money because, well, I work.

The past two years, I’ve had the average job.

I had to be at work by 6:30AM and I clocked out at 3PM.

Monday through Friday.

Every week.

I got the typical holidays off.

I got two weeks vacation.

I got one week sick time.

Pretty average, right? I thought it was but apparently others think I get paid to just sit around like the Kardashians (I wish). I can see why they may think that though. In the past two years I’ve been to New York City (twice), Chicago (multiple times), St. Louis (multiple times), Phoenix, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, San Francisco, Knoxville, Dallas and Beijing, China. That’s a lot of vacations within two years for the typical person. But I had ways to make it happen.

 

So how do I manage to live the not-so-average life while being….. average?

 

I Take Advantage of Long Weekends

Holidays aren’t random. Christmas comes December 25th of every year. The New Year is always on the 1st of January and the 4th of July is on (SURPRISE!) July 4th. Companies typically know what holidays they take off every year, so you can plan your schedule around those days and ahead of time. Yeah, holidays are usually more expensive for traveling, but the more ahead of the game you are, the better of a deal you’ll get.

I Use My Vacation Days

I’m actually surprised I have to even list this. There are people who literally don’t use their vacation days?? WHY?? I ALWAYS use all my vacation days and typically tack it onto a long weekend. It automatically turns a 3 day weekend into a 4 day weekend and you only have to use one vacation day. There are usually at least 3 holidays a year that can be used like that, so you’re looking at three 4 day vacations with days still left over for more. Not too shabby.

I Know That Vacations Don’t Have To Be A Week Long

I couldn’t count the amount of times I got off work and started driving straight to an adventure or the amount of times I got off work at 3PM and flew to a different state by 8PM. Usually when I go somewhere I only stay a couple of days. It keeps me from spending a crap ton of money and it gives me just enough time to see the main things. And did I mention it doesn’t involve having to take days off work? Weekends are the perfect short getaways and people don’t take advantage of that as much as they should. Some people say it’s not a relaxing way to travel but those people just haven’t spent a weekend on the beach.

Another big thing people say is “I don’t have weekends off.” I’ve known multiple people who have off days such as Tuesday and Wednesday or something similar. First off, what rule states you can’t travel in the middle of the week (because you definitely can, in case you didn’t know)? Second off, I’m extremely jealous of these people because little do they know, it’s WAY cheaper to travel in the middle of the week! So who cares what days you have off? As long as it’s a couple in a row – go somewhere!

Yeah, there are a lot of things that can stop people from traveling – kids, health, money, etc. – but NEVER let time be a reason.