The Letting Go

My boss skyped me at 2pm on Monday March 16, 2020 and said 'can you hop on a skype call at 2:30pm?' I worked a job in the travel industry and had just returned from a vacation that stopped through Spain, a new hot spot for this corona virus we'd been hearing about. In fact, our original vacation was planned to Asia and we changed courses as there were 95 cases of this mysterious deadly virus killing people in Singapore. We thought 95 cases was way too risky so we diverted...but I digress, an unplanned meeting was unusual and I had awakened with a pit in my stomach anyway.

The pit in my stomach turned out for good reason: I was let go at 2:30pm on that Monday, locked out of all my emails by 4pm with no explanation or goodbye. Just dead meat after working there for 4 years.

I went on a walk the next morning with a friend and tearfully told her what happened.  I'll never forget she said to me, 'the next thing is always better.'  I thought this was truly a great job at a great company. How could the next thing be better? And what was I going to do if I couldn’t work in travel?  And worse yet, not travel??  

As I racked my brain for things I liked as much as travel, the only thing I could come up with was dogs. It so happened that the dog business was going crazy during COVID times as everyone was stuck at home and adoptions were at record highs. I had already been working in training my own dog Gus as a therapy dog and volunteering at a local dog organization, so it seemed a natural coronaproof thing to check out. In just a quick internet search for classes I found one at University of Washington that was a year long program for a certificate in 'Animal Behavior Science.'

You know when you scroll and something gets your heart going, your lips licking, and your mind spinning - well that was this class. It was also all online and had two amazing teachers with 30 years experience in Animal Behavior, specializing in mostly dogs. I applied and was accepted to the program and began classes involving writing, research, group projects, and in depth thinking about the thing I love most besides traveling - dogs.

I had no idea what I was going to do with this new degree, but sometimes you are led down a path you don't know why, and you just walk through that doorway. And if nothing else came from it, it made me feel challenged and active while I wasn't working.

In mid April 2021 came the message from my old boss asking if I would meet as she was wanting to hire me back. She was excited to 'get the band back together' and I was still hurt as there was no explanation why I was let go when the rest of the operations team was kept on - but the truth was I had to swallow my pride and take the old boyfriend who dumped me of a job back. Because it actually was my dream job and I didn't have anything else I wanted to do more. Plus I really liked all my coworkers.

Sometimes you are on a path and don't know it.

During this lull of me not working and being in school my urge to travel was palpable and needed somewhere to go.  When Gordon and I first started dating he was showing me some 'vanlife' conversion photos and I quickly poo-pooed the idea of living in a van in the USA.  This girl's international wings couldn't be clipped!  Oh, there's no way to travel internationally now due to a stupid virus?  Errrrrrt.  In Jun 2020 we bought our van and 3 months later the conversion was complete as Gordon ( and me as a helper ) worked tirelessly to complete the build from an empty shell in our own garage.  

Meanwhile, I had an idea to just start watching a few dogs on the side for some pocket travel money and Gordon was thankfully all in. We were both stuck at home all day, so why not watch some dogs, get playmates for Gus, and try out my shiny new degree as an animal behaviorist?

Little did I know that we would love it so much that I asked Gordon if he would like to open a business watching dogs. And as the amazing partner he is I had his support and Gus's Cabin was born in December of 2021.

Who knew this business would soar basically from the moment we opened our doors to turning away dogs left and right and our dinner conversations involving how to balance our pack and what was our max dog count. We set it at 6 dogs but got up to 12 a few times, mostly because I had a hard time saying no. I had meet and greets and evaluated dogs. Gus let me know if they were cool or not and I quickly became able to read dogs and people.

We offered a premier service for $50 a night and your dog became part of our pack. All dogs got lots of play time and a forest walk every day where they could run wild if allowed by the owner.

No crates or cages, your dogs sat on the sofa with us and Gus calmly showed them the ropes of how to be a good dog in our home. Our favorite part was watching shy or timid dogs blossom out of their shells.

While still working my travel job countless times I was laughing to myself as I was in a zoom meeting on mute with 8 dogs underfoot all sleeping quietly. I was talking in a meeting secretly hoping no Amazon driver would show up, sending everyone barking to oblivion. I continued to travel to Antarctica and Scotland with work, and worked our buns off building a successful business too.

I learned how to invest from a dear friend named Greg who is self taught in how make his travel dreams come true, and soon I was making almost as much as my 'day job' that all went straight into savings for travel. Plans were being laid.

And no I don’t think I’m anything amazing. In fact I felt pretty un-amazing being let go in 2020. The disposable one on our team. But what I do think is something amazing - accepting the unknown with grace and knowing you might not know WHY it happened TO you because it might be happening FOR you down the road.  And being let go led me somewhere pretty fucking amazing. 

In October 2023 I gave my notice to my new boss and got to leave the travel company on my own terms, saying goodbye and wrapping up all my programs in the best way possible.

When the CEO heard he called me and almost three years later I got the words that a mistake was made and they shouldn’t have let me go but the way I handled it with grace showed my true character.

And you know what - I am truly glad it happened. For you won’t get all the answers to why things happen to you but the groundwork for something better could be being laid. I also learned I was pretty resilient actually and had I not been let go I'm not certain I would be writing this from the open road in Mexico on the adventure of a lifetime.

A good friend asked if I missed working. The funny thing is I'm still kind of working. I'm planning travel, researching places and countries and border regulations - many things I did for my old job. I'm just doing it for myself and without the stress.

I do miss the dogs though.

Life sure has a funny way of working itself out doesn't it?