I promised myself that I wouldn’t travel anywhere until I’d found a job and somewhere to live and paid off my medical and credit card bills.  And although it hasn’t been easy (I had to turn down a free trip to Los Angeles last week), so far I’ve remained true to my word.

To be perfectly honest though, the reason for this has less to do with will power and more to do with the fact that I have a new job.  And unlike my last job (working for an airline) this one doesn’t come with free flight privileges.  I’m now teaching English at a language school in San Francisco, which means that the few hours a day I’m not lecturing French college students about compound adjectives and past participles, I’m either lesson planning or lying in an exhausted heap on my parents’ couch; images of copy machines and dry-erase boards dancing through my head.  I’m usually so exhausted by the time the end of the day rolls around that even if I had the time to travel right now, I’d wouldn’t have the energy.  I barely have enough energy to write this blog post.

The good part about my job is that it pays nearly 30 dollars an hour.  The bad part about it is that it’s only temporary.  I’m subbing for a teacher who’s currently on vacation and due to come back in a couple of weeks.  And when she does, I’ll be out of a job again.  A fact that could wind up working to my advantage.

Last week, one of my airline buddies text-messaged me this:

“Wanna go to Germany for three weeks in December?  I can get you a free pass on Virgin Atlantic.”

To which my first thought was: Okay, let me think about this…

…………………………………………………

(then three seconds later):  Um.  Would I ever!

But then, like the responsible adult I’m now trying to be, I wisely text-messaged him back with a:

“That sounds amazing, but I don’t know if I should.  If I don’t have a job by then, I’ll be too broke to go and if I do have a job by then, I’ll be too busy to go.  But I’ll think about it and let you know?”

I’m still thinking about it.

Reannon Muth

Reannon Muth is a full-time writer, social media consultant and owner and manager of the Taken by the Wind travel blog. Born in Hawaii, Reannon has lived in five countries, at Disney World and on a cruise ship. She currently lives in fabulous Las Vegas.