End of the Rat Race
We’re Chris and Gena, two freelance writers. We’ve been married 15 years and during that time we’ve lived the American dream. We’ve worked our way from apartment living to a 3-bedroom house, then to a 5-bedroom house. We’ve gone from one old TV set in our first apartment (with no couch!) to a beautiful home filled with everything we’ve wanted, from technology and clothes to toys and furniture. We’ve got two great children who want for nothing, attend a wonderful church and feel very blessed. We’ve even worked our way out of corporate America and into successful full-time freelance careers.
That’s why we want everything to change.
Somehow, amidst the blessings, we’ve realized they have come to own us instead of us owning them. We spend our weeks maintaining our lawn, our car, our toys. We work day in and day out for the next paycheck only to have 90% of what we earn dwindle away to bill and debt. Everything we should be enjoying we’re now despising.
We’re tired of living complicated lives.
On September 1, 2008, we finally both voiced that we were tired of the rat race. Tired of working hard only to pay bills. Tired of maintaining everything–the house, the yard, the lifestyle–only to miss out on the things that matter most: things like family time, saving for our children’s future and enjoying life.
So we’re making a radical change. We’ve tried making “small changes”–decreasing our bills, giving some things away, dropping services we don’t need–but it wasn’t enough. Invariably, we end up in the same place as before, still running round and round on a wheel, not getting anywhere.
You probably know exactly what we’re talking about, because you’ve probably struggled with the same demons.
Enough is enough.
We’ve decided to truly rebel against suburbia this time. We’re selling the house, selling our stuff, selling our kids (well, ok, we’re not selling our kids–I get carried away sometimes). But we’re going to completely simplify our lives. We want to live anywhere we want without having to constantly maintain our “suburbian stuff” to keep up with the Joneses. We want to work where and when we want. We want to see the world. We want to secure our children’s future. Maybe we’re wanting too much, reaching too high–our critics and our family may very well believe that. But for our sanity, we’ve got to try.
I promise you, we’re not crazy. We’re not going to sell everything just because we can. We want to strike a balance–use technology to our advantage, keep material items that matter most but scrap the rest, live comfortably but not controlled.
It may take weeks, it may take months, it may take years. It may take everything within us. But whatever it takes, we’re going to document it on this website. And we invite you to join us on this journey.
–Chris and Gena
Freelance Writers
