So. I just sold all my shit, including my car and home, and booked a one way trip to South Africa where I’ll get started on my next big bout of world travel (well, the home sale is pending but ?? we make it to the end of escrow).
But before I head out for my next big life adventure… I wanna chat about the one I just had. The one I’m leaving now: Arizona. Moving to Arizona was, like most of my big life decisions, one made on a whim. A major whim.
I had just been traveling the world for 5 months (my first experience of ‘slow travel’ – which is simply longer term travel where you stay at each location for weeks instead of days and really get to take your time). My heart wasn’t done traveling, but Covid brought me home. It was when Trump said ‘if you’re abroad, it’s time to come home or you’ll have to stay out.’
I was in Thailand at the time at a health and fitness bootcamp along with people from all over the world (the other bootcampers and the instructors too). I had been there a month or so and was supposed to have 2-3 weeks left still, when rumors started to break out at our bootcamp about Covid and the world starting to shut down. It was actually a really interesting place to be at the onset of all of this because everyone reacted so differently. Some skipped out immediately. Some dug their heels in and said ‘nope, no way, I’m not leaving unless I’m forced.’ Others were truly scared because they honestly didn’t know where they would go (or where they would want to go).
I ….. didn’t know what to think or what I wanted to do. I hadn’t been convinced that this was really worthy of me packing up and calling my whole adventure quits (I mean I was supposed to meet my mama in Hawaii after this for her 50th birthday, and I had several more months of travel in mind after that too).
Cut to Trumps message above. And I said, alright! I hear you. I didn’t think getting stuck in Thailand was the best idea if things did get much worse and locked down, and what if this whole thing was for real for real? Anyway, I booked my flight back home for the next day. And as it turned out, the gym/camp ended up closing (being mandated to, by the time I was at my first layover).
So I was back at home in California, with my Jeep (which was nearly new at that point, I had bought it brand new just a few months prior to travel cuz that travel was also on a whim and planned only 30 days ahead or so lol). Gosh recounting all this now, reminds me of just how crazy I really am. Anyway, I was back home with my Jeep in my lovely apartment (it really was such a cute apartment)! Oh and with my little doggie too (who had been staying with my mom while I was away).
But of course, we were locked down. Masks required. Social distancing. No parties or concerts or even trips to the movies or beaches. Bummer.
So, Arizona? That’s what my story here is about right? Ok. So (again, like many of my big life decisions), I stumbled upon the idea late one night as I was tossing and turning and struggling to fall asleep. Arizona wasn’t my first thought. My first thought was: you know – I bet I could qualify for a home loan right now! And let me preface that by saying just 2-3 years earlier that would not have been the case at all (before my first business and then my second – which are another story for another day), I was living paycheck to paycheck, debt up to my ears that I thought I’d never pay off (truly, I had resigned to it and just figured this was how my life would be). I NEVER thought home ownership or even renting my own home would ever be something on the table for me.
So. I’m thinking about whether I would currently qualify for a home loan. And I just open the browser on my cell phone, go to my banks website and apply. For kicks. Only something you need to know about me is I never really do anything just for kicks. I don’t walk on to a car lot without taking a car home that day. I don’t stop to talk to someone selling puppies on the side of the road (err in a Walmart parking lot) without taking one home. I never really do anything just for kicks.
So, even though I didn’t fully know it yet, once I applied, I was going to buy a home. My first home. After I submitted the application, that is when the thought of Arizona came in. For some reason – and I really couldn’t tell you why – it’s just the first place that came to me. I knew, for certain, that my boujee ass (with what I knew would be boujee ass desires for my first home) wasn’t gonna be happy with what I could actually afford in California (which would have been a nice new condo at best). Naw, I wanted a nice spacious house. With a pool too!
Within 35 days from that moment (after quite a bit of work with the realtor I found the next day and the mortgage company he recommended), I was in Arizona in my new home. And it wasn’t just spacious with a pool. It was even lakeside! A true oasis.
I’ve been here for just about a year and a half. And yes, that’s a pretty quick turn around on a home. Which – I knew I wouldn’t be here way too long or anything anyway (clearly, that’s just not my nature), but I had moved in thinking I’d stay about 5 years.
What changed? Umm. I mean. Honestly, the seed was planted during a really really rough few months in my business. I made it through the challenges (with my team, well half my team anyway, and that’s also another story for another day), but it all forced me to A) fight harder than I’d ever fought in my whole life for anything B) think about my life and what I really wanted and was this (any of this) even it?
While I did make it through those business struggles and onto the other side – during the worst of it, when it came time to think about what the alternative would or could be if I did just choose to walk away? Well, there was a gnawing in my heart or soul, or somewhere around there, about how I could NEVER go back to a traditional, in-person, 40 hours per week (clock in and clock out) job. Never. The thought made/makes my skin absolutely crawl (and listen this is nothing against anyone that loves their traditional job, I was just never built that way). So the answer was obvious. I would just have to sell my beautiful home, and run off to some foreign country where my money can go further.
It felt a little like a joke at the time. I couldn’t do something so crazy. But hold on, I’m Angela Rae Froschl. You bet your ass I could do something that crazy.
Anyway. I had no intentions of actually walking away from my business. Or my home. But… the seeds were planted.
Once I did make it through those business struggles and business started really recovering? I was still left with the thoughts about what I really wanted. I mean I had just fought like hell, as I said, to get my business out of a really tough spot (again, I’ll chat more on this another day, but essentially we grew too fast and eventually something was gonna have to give). Anyway now, after all that, all I could think about was how caged I felt by my other life circumstances. I was paying myself well (by my standards anyway, not like some obscene amount or anything but more than enough). And yet, I had simply grown my lifestyle and accumulated new debt to take up all the extra income. I still wasn’t saving. My credit card limits were near to all being maxed again (filling this big new home mostly).
I wasn’t exactly in trouble financially. And business was back on track too. So I could totally keep going on this way. Forever, if I wanted. But that’s NOT what I wanted!!! That’s not what I wanted at all.
I knew my home had already appreciated a great deal. And I guess that little seedling (the initial idea about selling everything and running away) had started to sprout! Selling my home, taking the profit and paying off every last dime of my personal debt, and taking off to travel again was sounding like the perfect plan. I had been itching to get back to travel one way or another anyway so that was happening regardless. In fact, my initial plan was just to get a house sitter to watch the house and dogs while I traveled for six months — only I decided at the very last moment (about 30 days before my scheduled flight out) to just sell it all and take the profit and ditch the debt.
I don’t have all the answers about what’s next. I really don’t. But the first stop is South Africa – where most of my team is (that may be the next story I share actually), where we are having our first ever in-person team retreat (and Hot Mess is going to be 4 in just a few months here too, so it’s been a long time coming)! I am so excited for this, because these aren’t just team members. They are close friends. Family even. And the team I have left right now (8 of us), we have fought so hard together. This isn’t just my company. It’s all of ours.
Anyway! The only other thing I’d like to mention about Arizona is I picked up this boy, Boomer, along the way. Whom I absolutely adore! I was so sad to leave him with a boarder recently but I just want to be sure I’m in a good spot before I fly him over to me (a spot where I can limit the flights and focus on travel by land ideally). And of course Missy will be very safe and loved by my mama while I’m gone too (and Missy is crazy about her as well so while I miss her too, I know she’s in a great place).
Ok I lied, the other thing I would like to do (even if none of them ever see it), is to thank and honor all those people I met here in Arizona in my short time here. For a long time, my best friends were my weekly housekeeper (Tia) and my hairdresser (Alex) and then my yoga instructor (Shi) and even my go-to handyguy (Rob). And a few months ago, I was finally ready to try and make a new bestie so I posted on nextdoor and joined bumble BFF. I met some amazing ladies, a few who stand out in particular (like Claudia). And I did in fact make a new Bestie (Kerri). Like a true ride or die! We’ve only been friends for a super short time now (just a few months really), but I just know I’m gonna see this girl again. We’ve been tattooed together, had our tarot read together, we took the full top off my Jeep for the first time ever and went on a day trip (actually, this was all on one day lol). Anyway, there hasn’t been a weekend we haven’t adventured together since we met! I’m sad to leave her so soon. But again, I know I’ll see her again (also because we need to get some traveling in together and already have so many ideas on where to meet).
Alright. That’s it for today. If you read this far, thank you for following along. I have so much more to share about everything that’s past and everything that is yet to be.
I love all of this!!!!
What an adventure. I give you so much credit for being so brave. This also inspired me to get out of my own damn way and start writing too. Nothing as exciting as selling everything you own and moving to South Africa, but simply to share.
Life is a journey!! Enjoy and thanks for sharing!!