I’m unemployed at the moment, and the last thing a responsible personal finance blogger in my position should advocate for is taking a vacation, right? Maybe not.
Since September 2019, my anxiety and depression were spiraling out of control, hitting a breaking point in early November. In the early part of the spiral, I had a video call with my three besties from Grad School, and we decided it was time to get together. I confidently said that the time didn’t really matter, becuase I had a bunch of vacation days to use up. Little did I know what was around the corner…
Thanks to YNAB, I had the money set aside for the trip, so there was no need to worry that I wouldn’t be able to go when I lost my job. We settled on Blowing Rock, North Carolina in February, in the off season. As my guru, Kendra, the Lazy Genius says, Name What Matters. Our main purpose was to step out of our daily lives and be with one another. Really, our decision-making procress reminded me of that JoDee Messina song “Heads Carolina, Tails California.”
In some of my most challenging times during this period of anxiety and depression, I’ve wished I could go back in time to Grad School, where I keep mental bookmarking as the high point of my life. At that time, I was seeing these ladies multiple times a week. We’d have potlucks, coffee dates, random chats after classes, and adventures throughout Indianapolis. My life was incredibly high value, even though none of us had any money to our names.
In my mind, this “vacation” was far from optional. I needed to reconnect with these women who knew me when I was a version of myself that I liked. I needed a break from the life that continues to feed the voices in my head that say “You’re broken, and you’ll never be whole again.”
I prepped for the trip by making sure I had what I needed in case the anxiety hit. I had almonds, and planned to stop by the grocery store on our way to the condo for juice boxes. Eating a handful of almonds and drinking a small box of juice each morning calms my morning anxiety substantially. Thanks to the West Pines Medication Management Clinic for that hot tip. I made sure my LexaPro and my Vistaril were packed. My husband prepped two of my traveling companions with what I’m capable of. It felt safe enough to venture out of my turtle shell.
And I am so glad I did. Despite some canceled flights, motion sickness, and unexpected snow (one my friends had to cancel her part of the trip), it was utterly refreshing. I was able to stay in tune with when things were getting to be too much, and step back and rest. We cooked, we laughed, we bought a new quote book, we shopped, and we stayed up far too late eating ice cream and watching movies. It filled my cup.
This Girls Weekend was priceless in its value, but it did have a cost. A huge thanks to Splitwise which helped us keep track of who bought what, and who we needed to reimburse. Splitwise is an app that links with Venmo and Paypal to make paying your friends easy, but the real gold is in the ability to split payments among a group, in nearly any configuration you choose.
All in, I spent about $800 including flights, lodging, meals, and shopping. I have abosultely ZERO regrets. The value of this trip has really encouraged me to look into travel hacking. In fact, I started the ChooseFI Travel Hacking course on the flight home! This trip felt full of luxury, but in truth it was a necessity, and one that I will gladly factor into my financial independence journey.