While my interests have changed very little, my life has lead me down paths unexpected…a totally predictable thing to any wise man. Obviously, I was taken by surprise by these unexpected changes in my life, but I have adapted. I’ve said before human nature drives us to our level of comfort – we push for change in order to make our lives manageable and, hopefully, into what we would like for them to be. Frequently, we make concessions to our desires for a multitude of reasons, but always end up in a place of acceptable comfort, or we keep struggling to achieve an acceptable level of comfort, even if it wasn’t what we expected.
I’ve spent over 25 years now living in Florida. At first, it was means to an end. Simply put, Florida offered jobs where West Virginia did not, and at a time when I really needed one.
Not long after putting my feet in the sand here, I started longing for my West Virginia hills, the self-reliant people there, and the lifestyle that (mostly) allowed a man to do what he damned-well pleased…. and at one point, almost made it back there with my wife and two young daughters.
Thankfully, the national economy was in a downward spiral and my plans of relocating to West Virginia fizzled and died. Not long after, a good friend and classmate of my wife’s (SOOO MANY thanks, SB!) started to show me that Florida offered much of what I sought from West Virginia, only Florida’s versions tended to be warmer, wetter, and saltier. And I grew to appreciate what I had here.
Fast forward twenty plus years, and I find myself with two lovely, well-adjusted (for these time, at least), and fun-to-be-around daughters in their late teens. Standing beside me as an equal is their mother and my wife of almost 23 years, a beautiful little brunette whose strength of character and goodness of heart make her about as perfect a woman that I could honestly expect to ever meet. (If only she liked to fish more than once a decade….)
Collectively, we are happy, safe, and simply put, comfortable. Why would we want to change that?
A great question, and one I plan on trying to explain as we sell much of our belongings, quit our jobs, sell our business interests, and leave the tropical paradise that is Jensen Beach and move to….Alaska. Permanently.
As I close this chapter of my life and turn the page, Please join us on our journey to the Last Frontier, moving from Florida to Alaska over at FL2AK.com. We will be sharing our plans, hopes, dreams, skills, and hopefully, when the move is all over, we can turn yet another page as we adjust to living a simpler, and definitely COLDER life in Alaska.
Thank you so much for joining me on my journey to this point. I hope you take the time to pop over to FL2AK.com to read about the next chapter in my life as I walk away from comfort and civilization, trading it for the struggle and remoteness, as well as the freedom and wild outdoors, of Alaska.
As always my friends,
Peace,
db