Countdown to departure

Welcome. I’m not sure I even know what the word blog means but this site uses it so I guess I should be welcoming you to my blog. To get everyone up to speed I will start with a short re-cap of my last 6 months. This post will most likely be the longest.

Ok….so I need to start a little further back than 6 months. Directly out of college I took my first job with Ingersoll Rand. 8 years and 5 cities later, I found myself living back in Virginia working as an Installation Manager for Ingersoll Rand. The job was good, travel was heavy and I was learning a lot. When the economy started to turn, stress levels grew, moral sunk, layoffs began and the walls were painted with doom and gloom. I never needed work to be fun to enjoy my job but the cumulative effects of two years of heavy travel and a business environment that was less than pleasant I felt it was time to make a change. I had always wanted to start a business and I was lucky enough to have the luxury of enjoying unemployment for an extended period. An opportunity arose at work to part ways on good terms. Even though leaving felt like the right thing for me to do, it was very difficult.

So, that took me to March 1st. I enjoyed the splendors of unemployment for a few weeks then headed to Georgia’s Springer Mountain with my mother who was starting the Appalachian trail and planned to hike to Harpers Ferry, WV. We hiked together for 4 days and 3 nights. It was a truly once in a lifetime opportunity to help her start such an ambitious journey. The hike was incredible fun. Mom nearly left me in the dust and we met an incredible number of great people. The scenery and mountains were amazing but the people you meet on the trail are amazing. One of the toughest good bye's in my life was leaving my mother to continue her journey up the trail.

After the backpacking, I spent my next two weeks preparing for my newest adventure. I am actually very happy with my current unemployment. I figure that while the economy is sorting itself out and while I can still (financially and physically) enjoy a semi early retirement…why not? I certainly plan to start a business sometime in the near future but for the next year I am going to build some new skills, enjoy life, work on the business plan and ensure that I have a complete and full separation from corporate America.

I leave for Argentina tonight where I will spend 3 months with a short visit to Chile and Uruguay. The main purpose of the visit is to learn Spanish through immersion and taking classes. Of course I would also like to see the country, enjoy the culture and possibly do some skiing. I really don’t have much of an idea of what to expect but I am excited for the unknown.

That gets us all up to date. Going forward, posts should be more entertaining. This one just sets up the base. I plan to post on this site every few days. Cell phone minutes to the US are in the range of $2.50/minute so I will not have the luxury of many phone calls. E-mail and this site will be my main mode of communication. Also, please keep me up to date with your lives and significant events. I don’t have any friends down there so e-mails from home will be refreshing.

I’ll miss everyone here and will hopefully get to see many of you when I return and devise another adventure.
Pierce