Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: This is the true story of one family who sold their house, packed up their life, and decided to live nowhere on purpose.
[00:00:11] Speaker B: What absolute abnormal people would even conceive of something this ridiculous?
Two kids, two parents, six months, no fixed address.
[00:00:31] Speaker A: There are some people who are like, oh, that's so nice for you.
And probably secretly in their head going, what the fuck?
Find out what happens when you stop watching the travel influencers who make it all look perfect and start living their nomadic life with kids for real.
[00:00:54] Speaker B: Did we name this podcast?
[00:00:56] Speaker A: We called it Trips and Giggles.
[00:00:57] Speaker B: Oh, that's right. Because I was gonna say welcome back to Trip Noodles.
[00:01:03] Speaker A: So I'm just gonna start off by saying that that took way too long to just get the audio right. And I know you're still not happy with it.
[00:01:12] Speaker B: That didn't take that long.
Like, I feel like you think that production is just something where you plug something in and it can sound like a million dollars.
[00:01:21] Speaker A: No, no, it doesn't have.
[00:01:22] Speaker B: But anytime I've watched, even on shitty headphones, like a TikTok video, they have these $800 mics and mixing software. Are you just realizing that your Mexican wine is shit?
[00:01:34] Speaker A: I think it's really bad.
[00:01:38] Speaker B: Yeah. You're just relenting.
Meghan just took a sip of wine and had a face. A grimace of, yeah, it's pretty bad. Why am I drinking this?
[00:01:47] Speaker A: Elpan.
She's yelling Elpan again.
[00:01:51] Speaker B: She's not yelling Elpan at all.
[00:01:52] Speaker A: The bread. She's yelling the bread.
[00:01:54] Speaker B: No one yells the bread at 10 o' clock at night in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.
[00:02:02] Speaker A: What is she saying?
[00:02:03] Speaker B: Hopefully this picks up the sound of the girl who's screaming, which I would try to do is sound.
Is that it?
Is that about right?
[00:02:17] Speaker A: Listen, I think it's just a. A unique experience, and I'm trying to be open to all of these unique cultural experiences.
[00:02:29] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. I mean, that's part of the deal.
[00:02:31] Speaker A: I'm just very curious why she's yelling El Pen.
[00:02:35] Speaker B: She's not saying El Pen.
She's not saying. Here's what I will say about this. Hopefully the mic catches it. She changes keys.
[00:02:44] Speaker A: She does, yeah.
[00:02:44] Speaker B: So she goes.
[00:02:45] Speaker A: She has a nice.
[00:02:46] Speaker B: She goes.
And then like 20 minutes later, she goes.
It's impressive. I'm like, why? Why did you switch?
[00:02:56] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:02:57] Speaker B: Anyway, it's been every night for five nights.
[00:03:00] Speaker A: So we're in Mexico on the 4th of July.
[00:03:04] Speaker B: Happy birthday.
[00:03:07] Speaker A: Happy birthday to America.
[00:03:09] Speaker B: Yeah, that's a great question mark there.
We're in San Miguel de allende, Mexico. At 7,000ft. I know this because my nostrils feel like a desert with dried snot ripped around the rims.
[00:03:28] Speaker A: Yeah. Just starting to get used to the elevation.
[00:03:32] Speaker B: No, I'm exhausted. Well, you know, we also have small children ages 21 months and 8 years, so that may have something to do with it, but.
[00:03:41] Speaker A: Don't like to sleep through the night or wake up. They like to wake up very early in the morning, too.
[00:03:46] Speaker B: They want to be part of our lives.
So why are we here, Dr. Byer?
[00:03:53] Speaker A: Well, it all started a long time ago. Just kidding.
I don't even know where I should start with this.
[00:04:02] Speaker B: We are in Mexico, July 4th.
We have sold our house.
[00:04:08] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:09] Speaker B: Anything that is a physical belonging other than our clothes and work equipment and a podcast mic and a crappy lapel from 2007, where we are. And so I don't. I didn't think I was gonna be here. You asked me five years ago. I would have said, no. Fuck, no, I'm not gonna be here.
[00:04:33] Speaker A: Well, so. Okay. Okay, I'll say this. I.
I have always had the dream of living abroad, and I did study abroad in college, as you know.
[00:04:41] Speaker B: Well, they don't know. You're not talking to me.
[00:04:43] Speaker A: Yeah, well, I am talking to you, but people are listening.
[00:04:45] Speaker B: Oh, I see what you're saying. Oh, God, I figured it out. That's how this works.
She's so smart.
[00:04:52] Speaker A: But then, you know, like, I kind of put that on the back burner. Living abroad.
[00:04:59] Speaker B: Can I jump in, though, real quick?
You had told me when you were in grad school, so when you were commuting from Bedminster, New Jersey, into the Bronx every day, that you really wanted to. Well, before that, you wanted to, but you were like, oh, when I finish, why don't we go live abroad for a year?
[00:05:20] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:05:21] Speaker B: You know, and that was, what, 2008, 2009.
[00:05:27] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:05:28] Speaker B: Like, right when you.
Before postdoctoral or externship programs. I guess I'm screwing this up. I apologize.
[00:05:34] Speaker A: Yeah, no, I started grad school in 2007.
[00:05:36] Speaker B: Okay. So at some point, you had said, when I finish in 2011, let's go live abroad for a year.
[00:05:45] Speaker A: Yeah. And you were like, hell, no.
[00:05:47] Speaker B: I don't remember it that way. I feel like I lied to you.
I feel like I straight up lied to you. I was like, oh, yeah, that's a great idea, honey. And I was like, that's fucking not gonna happen.
[00:05:55] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:05:55] Speaker B: There's no way she's gonna pull that off.
[00:05:58] Speaker A: Here we are, 2025.
[00:06:00] Speaker B: I just feel like I Think I lied about it? I think. I don't know that I was like, hell, no. Maybe I was. I apologize. I don't remember.
[00:06:06] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Well, the dream, you know, the embers were kept alive.
[00:06:11] Speaker B: Hell, though, that's where we got here. Like, when did it hit you again or what happened that you were like, I need to do this? Like, where did that journey start?
[00:06:25] Speaker A: I mean, I think there's a couple of points along the way, but I'll start here.
Our daughter, Our oldest daughter had trouble in school, and I was researching every possible alternative to traditional public school because she just wasn't. It wasn't working for her.
And, you know, we looked into all different kinds of education, but as I was doing that, I stumbled across World School.
[00:06:58] Speaker B: Man, I thought that was earlier, and for some reason, like, I know you're saying, like, she was struggling in kindergarten and, you know, public education in Maryland was not working for her, but I felt like it was earlier than that. Like, I feel like when, like, Covid time you were already talking about.
[00:07:15] Speaker A: You know why?
[00:07:15] Speaker B: Because the World School groups you joined. Right.
[00:07:18] Speaker A: We were doing the adoption process.
[00:07:20] Speaker B: And that's a whole other story.
[00:07:22] Speaker A: Yeah, that's a whole nother story. And then somebody in one of the adoption groups, because I like to follow lots of groups.
[00:07:29] Speaker B: How many groups do you think you're in on Facebook? I'm just. Just for fun.
[00:07:33] Speaker A: More than 30, probably, of all different types.
[00:07:40] Speaker B: Sorry, that was unexpected. I really was like, oh, like, I don't know, 12.
That caught. That caught me off guard.
[00:07:47] Speaker A: Well, somebody mentioned the importance of keeping a child who is adopted from abroad connected to their country of origin, their culture of origin.
And so one of the people that was in one of these Facebook groups said, we are planning on doing World School so that we can keep our internationally adopted childs connected to their country of origin.
And I was like, what the heck is World School? Is this a single school?
But no, it's a concept that I learned. And then I quickly went into a deep dive after that and then started really thinking about once our daughter had.
[00:08:30] Speaker B: Issues in the post connect, when was. So we can just create a timeline here.
When was that?
The adoption timeline. Right.
So I know we're jumping around a little bit, but we're going to. We're going to get to this.
So there's the miscarriage, which was 2019.
[00:08:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:08:52] Speaker B: And then when did the adoption start? When we pull the plug. Was that 2022, like, a year later?
[00:08:57] Speaker A: Because we went through fertility stuff.
[00:09:00] Speaker B: I remember fertility, and I remember pulling the plug in fertility. When we got to the point of like, okay, we're going to need to go to the next level.
[00:09:06] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:09:06] Speaker B: And you had already talked about way before that, wanting to adopt. Like, early. Early on you were interested in adoption. Yeah, I see. So the adoption was what led. So then when was the. So when did you start frivolously joining World School Facebook groups?
[00:09:23] Speaker A: I mean, pretty quickly after I learned what this concept was. And then I started reading about it, I listened to some podcasts, I joined some Facebook groups, I started talking to you about it so that you slowly were introduced to the topic until it suddenly became normalized several years later.
[00:09:42] Speaker B: Can we take a side tangent here just for a second to kind of explain the brilliance and how. I don't know if it's brilliant or evil. Like, I haven't quite figured it out yet. Like, Megan has you. I guess I'm talking to you, so I won't talk to anything else. Okay, so you have figured out, one, that I'm pretty simplistic and two, that clearly when you initially bring an idea to the table, I respond vehemently and I'm like, fuck no. Like, I'm just straight up terrible. And so what you figured here is, okay, if I just slowly drip, like a drip faucet over time will eventually create an indentation deep enough.
Will it make it way?
[00:10:27] Speaker A: So, but, you know, I think I just have to slow down, slowly introduce the topic, because I think you get very nervous about things that are outside of your comfort zone.
[00:10:36] Speaker B: I think I get flooded when it comes to situations that I don't know will have a significant impact over comfort and happiness, which we'll also talk about here at some point. And then you'll somehow spin it and say, well, I'm happier and a better person. There's things I like about it, but let's just be really clear. This is terrible, all of this.
[00:10:54] Speaker A: You have talked about so many good things and then you have brought up like, oh, how you miss things from Portugal. We'll talk about that later because we were in Portugal earlier this year. Okay, so listen, there are challenges, but here's the thing is we talk about it slowly over time so that you can see all of the angles and it's not being convinced right away. And there are things that I've talked about in the past that haven't come to be.
[00:11:22] Speaker B: Like, what?
This is what this tangent is supposed to be. When we got married, we got married initially on the fact that we were not going to have children. We were both Career driven at the time, you. Very much so for your PhD program to get a doctorate. And so we were going to focus on careers. And when that happened, around that time, you had already been talking to me about wanting a dog.
You were like, oh, I want a dog. I want a dog. And I didn't want a dog. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I will fast forward the story. It's much longer than this, but. But then it's like, okay, Damon, you pick up the dog. So we got a dog. Okay.
So within, like, a day of getting the dog, you go to me, he's lonely. He's just so lonely.
[00:12:03] Speaker A: Well, it wasn't a day you had to see. Like, he was lonely.
[00:12:07] Speaker B: He's lonely. He needs a friend. So, of course, then we get another dog, right?
[00:12:11] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:12:11] Speaker B: And so then we have two dogs for a period of time. And, you know, we handle the ups and downs of that situation.
And then it's.
Well, Damon, I know we got married on the idea that we weren't gonna have children. And you don't have to if you don't want to, but I've changed my mind. And I really want children.
Right?
[00:12:30] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:12:31] Speaker B: And I just said I didn't want children.
[00:12:32] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:12:33] Speaker B: So then we have two dogs. Fast forward. We have two children, and here you are on World School. World School. World School. And I'm like, hell, no, I'm not gonna go to World School.
And here we are in Mexico.
[00:12:43] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:12:45] Speaker B: So just, I mean, I don't. I don't know. Like, clearly, you know, the. The fool me once.
[00:12:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:12:52] Speaker B: But you fool me twice.
[00:12:53] Speaker A: I mean, I don't think you've regretted any of these decisions.
[00:12:57] Speaker B: Have I regretted us going on these trips?
[00:13:00] Speaker A: No. Like the dogs, the kids.
[00:13:02] Speaker B: Oh, no, no, no. You're right. 100%. Yeah. No, no, no. I mean, there's moments.
[00:13:06] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:13:06] Speaker B: There's many, many hard moments. I mean, moments. I mean, I don't know. Years at a time, maybe, but, like, yes, you're right. In the end, it's okay. But it still was this whole, let me introduce you to World School.
Let's buy an RV and drive around Europe and eat saltines.
[00:13:28] Speaker A: I never said that. I never said that.
[00:13:31] Speaker B: Let's make clothes out of curtains.
[00:13:34] Speaker A: Now you're just taking it to extremes.
[00:13:40] Speaker B: You know, that's what we can do, you know?
[00:13:42] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:13:44] Speaker B: Because honestly, when you first brought this idea to me, and I was like, what absolute abnormal people would even conceive of something this ridiculous?
You know, like a sense of. Even before we went on this trip, I was like, it's not just your house, right? Which is not everybody has a house, but your apartment, whatever it is, right? Like, there are comforts there. There are places where you deal with your own anxiety, which I have a ton of anxiety. Everybody does. You know, you deal with your own depression, you know, your places of happiness, you know where to get good food, you know how to take care of yourself. You have connections, communities, family, all those things.
[00:14:26] Speaker A: And you're like, well, that could be very mundane as well. Just very, very.
[00:14:32] Speaker B: Like, that's for you, right? I was happy. I was happy. I had my things. I was happy, had peace, calm, serene, quiet, rejuvenation.
[00:14:44] Speaker A: I remember you saying things like, oh, no, don't let me die in Maryland.
[00:14:49] Speaker B: Okay? That was Maryland. That didn't mean let's not live somewhere. Let's just go from place to place, hopping around, get a stick with a handkerchief on it, stick her clothes in the back and walk down the railroad tracks.
[00:15:02] Speaker A: We're also not doing this. Like, there are some people who world school like, indefinitely. We have a very distinct beginning and end phase.
[00:15:12] Speaker B: You constantly will take, like, these extreme cases to normalize the things that happen.
Let me ask you, like, what were people's reaction to you when you told them that you wanted to do this idea?
[00:15:26] Speaker A: I mean, it depends.
[00:15:27] Speaker B: Like, I've think this is great to talk about.
[00:15:30] Speaker A: There are some. Several friends and colleagues who have been like, this is so cool. And several who have approached me sort of like, in secret.
[00:15:43] Speaker B: In secret? Why? In secret? Clandestine meetings at night.
[00:15:47] Speaker A: Okay, can I have a phone call with each other? And then there are.
[00:15:52] Speaker B: Let's talk about ws.
[00:15:53] Speaker A: Live this life, right?
[00:15:57] Speaker B: And none of them are living it.
[00:15:58] Speaker A: None of them are living.
[00:15:59] Speaker B: I wonder why. That's what's interesting, right?
[00:16:01] Speaker A: It's because people are afraid to take the leap.
[00:16:05] Speaker B: No? You've told so many people about this, and yet no one else that we know in our friendship group was like, oh, I'd love to live your dream. They're not doing it.
Isn't that interesting?
[00:16:13] Speaker A: I bet you there will be at least one. Because people are afraid to do something that's so outside of the norm. And this is. It is scary. It is. You're especially, like. Especially this.
We'll talk about where we were in Portugal, which was very, like, set up and easy for the most part.
Now for these next two months, we are setting everything up and it's like.
[00:16:36] Speaker B: It is work, it's harder and. Well, I think we should come. We'll come to that, too. We should get to that point because it juxtaposition. So hold on, let me get us back on track here a little bit.
[00:16:46] Speaker A: All right, I'm going to answer your question.
Multiple people who have been like, this is super cool. Live your life. I wish I could do this kind of statements.
There are some people who are like, oh, that's so nice for you.
[00:17:05] Speaker B: Good for you.
[00:17:08] Speaker A: And probably secretly in their head going, what the fuck?
[00:17:13] Speaker B: Like, the reaction I get from my mom. Right. Okay.
It's just kind of general confusion, which.
[00:17:22] Speaker A: I've seen that from family people back channel, like, what the hell are these two doing?
[00:17:27] Speaker B: But I expect that, though. I mean, it does give them a little bit of fodder to burn. You've gotten multiple answers. I'm just. I think I'm throwing out a poignant response and you're saying it's being scared. I think it's more than that.
[00:17:38] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:17:38] Speaker B: I think it's more than that.
[00:17:39] Speaker A: What do you think?
[00:17:40] Speaker B: You yourself talked about the difficulty in a logistical fashion. And we went through it twice. Right. So we went through it when we went to Portugal because we were also in the process of putting down money on building a house, which there's an ending to this. So you are right. It's a little different. And then the second time, this time, where we're in Mexico, where we are literally selling our house and getting rid of as much shit as possible to then literally get on the plane after the movers came and go. So it's not just being scared. I think it's like there is a logistical battle as we are still having mail sent to the old house with new owners getting it. Your address has not changed yet, and it's July 4th, right?
[00:18:25] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:18:25] Speaker B: And neither one of us have got a shred of mail past the point of that change. So I don't think it's just fear.
It shouldn't end it. But again, there are things that would create a lot of unhappiness.
[00:18:40] Speaker A: I mean, I think unhappiness is a strong word. I think it's stressful. Uncertainty is stressful. Uncertainty is very stressful.
But there is also the juxtaposition in my mind of the experience that we and our children will have. Doing this is unlike what most people experience in their adult lives. Right. We will experience new cultures.
We learned very little Portuguese, but some Portuguese. I've never even been to Portugal before.
[00:19:15] Speaker B: It's true. Neither one of us.
[00:19:17] Speaker A: We are practicing our Spanish, which, I mean, I have forgotten about since high school. I mean, like we are.
Are there challenges? Of course there are. But I do think that those logistical challenges scare most people away.
And that's okay. I mean, it doesn't have to be for everyone. But I do think that there are some people who might secretly wish to do something like this, but never take the leap because it feels too big.
[00:19:48] Speaker B: No, I'm not disagreeing with you on that. And I'm not saying anything. I'm going to say an. And I'm not going to do a.
Or a butt. I'm gonna say. And sleeping on cardboard.
[00:20:01] Speaker A: The beds are terrible.
[00:20:02] Speaker B: Or a wooden plywood board for three months when you have multiple back issues is not fun. Yeah, right.
[00:20:11] Speaker A: It's not necessarily some things that are.
[00:20:14] Speaker B: Like outside of our control, you know, you. You make some concessions and I think it's.
I don't want to give you credit for this. In a way it's a good thing.
I don't. In a way it's a good thing to say, okay, I didn't go into a complete and utter meltdown. I didn't totally lose it. I didn't like basically just run off into the night, never come back. I somehow made it through a situation that didn't have the comforts of the things that I have in life. But I'm also going to say, like, I don't want to argue and say that that has.
That you wouldn't live a life to have profound great things without it either. You know what I mean? You know what I'm saying? Like, that's all I'm saying is like, I just want to be honest and realistic and say that like, it's not.
We're going the journey that you're driving the car and I am the trailer hitched to the back precariously.
And that's fine. And I'm not saying I haven't gotten better from it, but I will also say I haven't been pleasant either, a lot of times.
So this is just being real. I'm being real with you. There's days where. And you know it and you're like, no, great, he's grumpy. I got a screaming 21 month old and my 8 year old is neurodivergent and she's on the ground screaming on the floor because a plant attacked her eyeball, you know, and that's stuff you have to deal with. But you've said like, hey, I'm willing to take that on.
[00:21:44] Speaker A: Yeah. And I will say the values that I hold that make this a positive experience for me are not necessarily the values that everybody else has.
So it would probably not necessarily be a pleasant experience. And, you know, I think that you are. Have been extremely supportive.
Even, like, I think you're a person who would like to be a homebody and sort of. I would be at home. I would love to have your creature comforts.
[00:22:12] Speaker B: I would love my creature comforts.
[00:22:14] Speaker A: You're, like, going along with this because, you know, it's something that's meaningful to me, and I think you're getting something out of it.
[00:22:21] Speaker B: I love the story that you tell yourself, but I also know that, you know, you did say to me that, one, it's been clear it's been your dream since you were in your 20s. Right. And so I want to support your dream. Two, there's an end. If you were like, we're doing this indefinitely. We're selling everything we own.
That's gonna cause some issues, you know, and, man, I hate admitting this stuff. This just makes it. This ruins my portion of this conversation to, like, come on your side. And, yes, if I pull myself from those moments, there's something that I glean from this. But I'm not saying this would be my choice. If I was not with you, I would not do this. I would visit. I would travel. I love travel. Travel and vacation are very different than living in another country. That's another level. It really is. So in case you feel like, I know a lot of people are very traveled. Like, we've talked to people, we know people, and they go for a week and they go to resorts, whatever. That's totally different than, like, navigating the corner store and trying to find something in another language and using a translator to try to figure it out. Right?
[00:23:27] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:23:27] Speaker B: So. And then. Or. Or ordering, you know, chicken hearts and thinking that there's something else, thinking, oh, I got kebabs and ended up with 88 pounds of chicken hearts.
[00:23:38] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:23:41] Speaker B: I want to jump somewhere in this conversation to kind of seal up our back end. Okay, so we didn't get to, like, how we got to this. Like, you started working on me for a period of time. The world school.
I think that should lead you to, like, how did we end up getting to make this thing happen this year, 2025?
[00:24:03] Speaker A: Yeah, well, I mean, I think I had. In the. In this whole process.
I was thinking world school might be helpful for Cordy, our older oldest daughter, because.
Because of her neurodivergence, she is very good with experiential learning, and she's also a fantastic traveler. I mean, she she is, you know.
[00:24:26] Speaker B: She is fantastic, right? We took her to Germany and Italy when she was 18 months old. We took her to Seattle when she was two months old. This girl looks forward to planes.
[00:24:36] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, so.
[00:24:38] Speaker B: Which. So does Nuggie too.
[00:24:40] Speaker A: So she doesn't do well sitting at a desk with worksheets. And so I think.
I was thinking, you know, this could be a really cool experience, given that she loves to travel. I love to travel and all this stuff. Anyway, we found this organization called Boundless Life.
[00:24:58] Speaker B: Megan found Boundless Life.
[00:25:00] Speaker A: I found Boundless Life.
[00:25:01] Speaker B: You found Boundless Life, which.
[00:25:03] Speaker A: Which I think was a little comforting for you because it was a full setup, right? There was school, there was a co working space, there was community events, which you were poo pooing.
[00:25:13] Speaker B: But, yeah, I was like, I'm not. I'm not going to any of these, and I'm not gonna be friends with any of these people. That's what I said.
[00:25:19] Speaker A: Liked all of the community.
[00:25:20] Speaker B: I'm good on friends. I'm full.
[00:25:22] Speaker A: Then he really liked all the people in the community.
[00:25:24] Speaker B: I did. I really did.
[00:25:27] Speaker A: So, yeah, so we.
I kind of. I don't even know how we, like, decided on doing it. I think we just.
I had brought it up to you. I'd showed you. I'd followed this organization for probably a year.
[00:25:41] Speaker B: You followed them on social media.
You showed me TikToks from families doing it. The decision process was, which of the locations were you going to choose? And so we should go back. It was 2024. When you were going through this process.
This is where the conversation was happening. So we were having this conversation throughout that period of time.
[00:26:00] Speaker A: I think it was when you got let go from your company.
[00:26:06] Speaker B: Oh, 2023. My company had. Oh, that's right. So I couldn't have. I couldn't have left the country. You were talking. Okay, there we go. So you were talking about this for a while. I was working for a company who.
A large bicycle parts manufacturer company. They had an absolute poor decision post Covid and then fired my entire branch of the company. My boss, my boss's boss, everybody went. So I started my own digital company. And that's when you were like, well, now.
[00:26:36] Speaker A: And I also, at that point, similar. Around the same time, had left my academic job or at least stepped away from it. I'm still technically.
[00:26:45] Speaker B: I guess you are adjunct faculty at Johns Hopkins.
[00:26:49] Speaker A: Well, anyway.
But I'm not on site. I don't have to.
[00:26:52] Speaker B: Right, you don't have to physically be there anymore.
You had Started pushing the business though, too, in 2022. Your other business, which Megan's a podcast host, in case you wondered.
[00:27:03] Speaker A: So now we were both remote workers so we could do this.
[00:27:09] Speaker B: Yeah. So you. That's right, you pushed me. And you were like, hey, now this is feasible. And I was like, no, this is a terrible idea. Because we had Nuggie. Right. In September.
And so then she turned one.
[00:27:21] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:27:21] Speaker B: And then you said, okay, so wait, okay, your memory is better than that. So then why Portugal? Because I still have not said yes to this.
[00:27:30] Speaker A: No. Well, we looked at a couple different places. I think we picked Portugal because it was closest to our time.
[00:27:36] Speaker B: Time zone. That's right.
[00:27:37] Speaker A: And it was.
Yeah, I think that was the main reason.
[00:27:42] Speaker B: Well, they wanted us to go to Estepona. Right. They pushed us. The organization Boundless had pushed us really hard to do Estepona, Spain, which by the way, is where we're going in a couple of months.
But it was brand new and they want us to go in September.
Was it September? They wanted us to go. And I was. And I was like, well, I'm not ready. I'm not ready. I'm not ready.
[00:28:04] Speaker A: We both had work commitments that we couldn't.
[00:28:06] Speaker B: I think I just was like, I'm not ready for this.
[00:28:08] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:28:08] Speaker B: You know, but fast forward or go before that.
So you.
I want to tell this part of the story or you can tell this part of the story. So you committed, right? You were like, well, actually it's. Before you committed, you were like, here's the information about this.
And you gave me the contract.
And I read the contract pretty thoroughly and I realized what the contract said, which was pretty clear that we had to pay them all the money up front.
It wasn't cheap. I mean, it's not cheap for a full scale organization which is giving you a co working space, community events, education and your place.
And basically what it said is even if you had like a significant death, like if I died, okay, let's just say something terrible happened. I got pushed into a meat grinder. It was game over for me. You would not get your money back. Yes, it was that significant. And I said, megan, this is a terrible fucking contract. I was like, you paid them everything up front, every bit of it up to 90 days before, and you still can't get your money back. That's what this contract says.
[00:29:20] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:29:20] Speaker B: And so I felt very unsure about it. I called, I called your uncle. I was like, I feel uncomfortable with this contract. Can you tell me? I feel the contract.
And then I just signed it.
[00:29:33] Speaker A: I just signed it and handed over the money.
[00:29:35] Speaker B: Yes, you signed the contract.
You handed the money.
[00:29:38] Speaker A: I said, okay, we can go. So then I just did it.
[00:29:42] Speaker B: No, that's not what happened. That is not what happened.
I was still holding hope that I would read this contract and be like, this is uncomfortable. Let's look at something else. You send me a text message.
You didn't even talk to me. You sent me a text message, and it said, I signed the contract. I paid the down payment. You'll get over it. We're going.
It said, we're going.
That's what it said.
You were like, get in the water. It's cold. You'll get over it. You pushed me in the pool.
[00:30:12] Speaker A: I did not say that.
[00:30:13] Speaker B: Next episode, we do this. I'll find the text.
[00:30:16] Speaker A: I did not say it.
[00:30:17] Speaker B: I will find the text message.
[00:30:18] Speaker A: I have more empathy than that.
[00:30:21] Speaker B: You have an incredible amount of empathy, but not with me. On certain situations, you know, I think you've come to the realization that you've gotten to a point where you know that I won't do it. I will analyze the shit out of something, and I will not move forward. So I will have great ideas, talk about something, do all the planning and investment, but I won't actually pull the trigger out of fear.
[00:30:46] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:30:47] Speaker B: And so you're like, I'm pushing your ass.
[00:30:49] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:30:50] Speaker B: And so you text me to tell me, we're going.
I paid, we're going.
[00:30:55] Speaker A: And it was fantastic. Except there were a few things which we'll talk about.
[00:30:59] Speaker B: I think we should talk about that another time.
[00:31:01] Speaker A: Another time.
[00:31:01] Speaker B: I think that gets us to, like, why we're here.
[00:31:03] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:31:04] Speaker B: In Mexico. Right. Does that. Does that fill in the.
[00:31:06] Speaker A: I mean, I think that's the backstory. You know, I think we can give more details in a future episode.
[00:31:13] Speaker B: I think so. I think that that covers it, but.
[00:31:16] Speaker A: Okay. This was fun.
[00:31:17] Speaker B: I.
I really. I don't know if you said, get over it. I think it's the story I told myself, but I. I never said that.
[00:31:23] Speaker A: I would never say that.
[00:31:24] Speaker B: I know you. I know you thought it. I know you said, we're going. Yeah, I paid. We're going to.
[00:31:30] Speaker A: In my mind, I might have said to myself, he'll get over it, but I never would have said that to you out loud.
[00:31:35] Speaker B: I read in between the text. I know what you're thinking. I can tell at this point.
[00:31:41] Speaker A: Oh, my God.
[00:31:42] Speaker B: Trips and giggles.
[00:31:43] Speaker A: Trips and giggles.
Okay, bye.
