OUR STORY
Welcome to our journey, we’re so glad you could join us!
We are Ashley and Jordan Garrett, two Texans who in May of 2019 found ourselves in Nairobi, Kenya with the goal of travelling the world for a full year.
There is, of course, more to the story. We are only in the first few chapters really, but let us give you a prologue.
Jordan grew up in Poolville, TX, a small town about 40 miles outside of Fort Worth.
Ashley was born and raised on the other side of the metroplex in Rowlett, just outside of Dallas.
We both graduated from The University of Texas in Austin, although we never knew each other during our time in Austin. Who knows how many times we passed each other on the way to class or worked out at the gym at the same time – it just wasn’t meant to be…yet!
We met online in 2014 while both of us were living and working in Dallas.
At the time, online dating felt weird but now it’s the most boring meet-cute there is!
We still have all of our awkward messages saved from our match.com days.
Within weeks after meeting, we were already planning our first road trip together and more flights were booked soon thereafter.
If you want to get to know someone and really flex those communication muscles, we highly recommend a road trip on a small budget.
Within six months, we were engaged and beginning our life together. When you know, you know!
After getting married in September of 2015, we were finding our travel budget stretched to its max over and over.
We honeymooned in France and Italy, then spent the next year traveling to a new city in the United States every other month.
We wanted to go somewhere, anywhere, almost all the time!
Then in 2017, a few things happened all at once that we credit with sparking this abrupt left turn in our lives.
After having booked another last-minute trip (maybe our sixth trip that year?), this time to NYC, we were out in the big apple eating dinner at a Korean restaurant.
Over dinner, we started talking about how we should go to South Korea!
Jordan has family from Seoul and we’ve always wanted to visit.
So, after a budget discussion it was settled; we were flying to Seoul!
Oh, and Tokyo was added because, while you’re there, you may as well, right? Right!
It was in researching this trip that Ashley discovered a couple of YouTubers who were travelling FULL-TIME all around the world. What? Who does that? Kara and Nate do and apparently hundreds (thousands?) of others do too!
The seed was planted, and a few months later I looked at Jordan and said, “If they can do it, we can do it. What would it take?”
Well, it would take downsizing and selling most of our stuff, paying off $70K in remaining students loans, sharing one car for almost two years and completely turning our lives upside down. Okay, no problem. We can do that.
Then, over the next two years, that’s exactly what we did!
There were huge celebrations (paying off debt) and days when I cried for hours at the thought of leaving Lady (our pup) for a whole year.
Fast forward two years and we ticked off every goal on that list, finding ourselves with over $60K saved up for a trip around the world with no debt to our name!
Also, no belongings or housing, but that’s not the point. We left on May 8, 2019 and the rest is…on YouTube!
The best piece of advice we received in making this happen was from Kara and Nate themselves.
They said, “Decide you’re going and start telling people”. That sounds easy, but it’s when you start telling people that you really find out how committed you are.
We spent so much time before taking off explaining and defending our decision to almost everyone in our lives.
“You’re risking your career and safety!”, we’d hear. Yes, it’s risky, but we are okay with that.
“You should invest in a home and buy land.” We could, but why not put our money towards something we actually value? A house will always be an option, travel might not.
Our favorite was “Oh, I could never do that”. Yes, you totally could.
We all spend our energy and resources on the things that matter most to us – whether we do it intentionally or not. Travel mattered most to us. Building a family, buying a home, growing a career, driving nice cars or saving the bees might be what matters most to you. Those are the places you are “going”. And that is fabulous!
As Mr. Thoreau says, “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you’ve imagined.”
Keep Going Places isn’t always about traveling to distant destinations. It’s about going for what matters to you and then going further.
We believe that “going places” is a philosophy of sorts. It’s about finding ways to grow – however that looks to you. Learning new skills, seeing new places, becoming a parent or an activist, or being a better friend are all places worth going. Then, once you’ve achieved your goal, ask yourself where you can go next!
For now, we’re travelling the globe. But next, we want to truly explore and get to know our home country. Someday, our ‘destinations’ will be things like parenthood, entrepreneurship and finally becoming fluent in Spanish. Whatever, wherever it is – we just want to keep going and growing!
Again, welcome to KGP and thank you so much for following along.
Feel free to subscribe to our YouTube channel or follow us on Instagram to help us KEEP GOING PLACES!
