A Look Back to the Present

Here is the start of my blogging career from my comfy couch in my home in Park City. Rachelle is currently refining the design of our newly acquired Sprinter Van, while I am taking a break to get some of my thoughts down and let you all know a little about myself. Born in sunny Santa Monica, CA back in 1986, it did not take my parents long to move my two sisters and I to Park City, Ut in 1988. Funny thing is I recently bought a home that is no further than a stones throw from our first dwelling in Park City almost 26 years ago, I am literally looking at it right now from my couch... where has the time gone? It seems like yesterday I took my dad's Jaguar for a little joy ride backwards down the driveway, with my head out the sun roof and my sister Rachel in the passenger seat. Don't be alarmed. How much damage could a 4 year old really do to a Jaguar? My short driving lesson put my sister and I in a ditch across the street. Given my parents reaction, it was clear I failed toddler driving school...but still so cute!

Graduating from Park City High School in 2005 I decided to attend CSU in Fort Collins, CO and studied Sports Medicine. All my life my interest had been in the medical field but soon the reality of a hospital or clinic setting scared me. Having my junior year crisis of not knowing what I wanted to do with the rest of my life (this is when the partying slows down ever so slightly and the word Career starts to soak into your sobering brain) sent me down the study abroad path. The nature and beauty of the fall off land of New Zealand transcended me from another semester at CSU to a 15 hour plane ride, as far as one can go without coming back. My education in New Zealand was short lived but the experience jump started my life of adventure and the unknown. Realizing studying in New Zealand was not only expensive but would interfere with my ability to explore the islands, I proceeded to the Dean's office to indicate my un-enrollment from Victoria University in Wellington. Freedom! Time for a road trip to Queenstown and somehow figure out a work visa because as I left the Dean's office my student visa was quickly expiring.

Queenstown, NZ was my home for the next 5 months working as a concierge at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. After my stay in NZ I proceeded to Australia for 10 days followed by a month in Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam. Living out of a backpack with not much of a schedule brought me great pleasure. I loved the simplicity of life in these countries and the nonjudgemental smiles of the locals. These are the experiences that shape the very matter I see in the mirror on a daily basis.

After my return to CSU I was somewhat surprised by the amount of friends who thought I was never coming back and had decided I dropped out of school all together. Nope college was a privilege and there was no way I was going to quit on it. Entering my last summer off before one more fall semester to complete my BS in Sports Medicine, I was very intrigued by a river guiding job but instead decided to sell educational books door to door in Mansfield, OH. Knocking on doors for 83 hours a week...sounds pretty sweet, huh? Well no, it kind of sucked actually. This was 2009 and I arrived in Mansfield in my green VW GTI just as the GM plant shut down which employed most of the city. So now here I am going door to door in my green VW GTI trying to sell educational books to people with the internet who hate foreign vehicles! Well the summer was not all that terrible and I ended up walking away with a new appreciation for the statement "hard work pays off." Selling to nearly 200 customers, $26,000 worth of books, I went back to CSU for my last semester with some green in my account and a new found confidence with people. After all I knocked on nearly 3,000 doors and heard "No, not interested" about a hundred billion times (come on people can we not get a little more creative with our responses).

Who would have thought selling books door to door would launch me into a successful career as a real estate agent back in my hometown of Park City. However, as my career sprang off, I kept the dream of traveling again without time restraints. With that realization a time clock was set for myself of 5 years. I promised that "no matter how good things were going, in 5 years I would take a step back from real estate and go travel once again." March 2015 marks my 5 year anniversary from obtaining my real estate license and the promise I made to myself 60 months ago. Interestingly enough my girlfriend, Rachelle, has had similar dreams of traveling the world to explore the beauty it has to offer.

So what did we do??? We bought a Sprinter Van!!!

Bought the van on ebay (I know...crazy!) and hired Bill (a complete stranger, pictured above) to drive the van 2,600 miles from Plaistow, NH to the Motel 8 near Salt Lake International Airport (because it had a free airpot shuttle so Bill could catch a flight home). Check out Bill on www.uship.com if you ever need something shipped across country. More details of our building the van out process to come!

Author: Jeremy Wilstein