I made the difficult decision to retire from my financial consulting world after much frustration to focus on myself and my true passions. I say “difficult” because it sure seemed that way at the time but 2 months removed from that decision, less than a week after my last day of work, and happily enjoying the first next phase, it seems like the easiest and most rewarding decision of my life. The first next phase involves traveling with my good friend Amy (who recently made a similar life-altering decision) to Southeast Asia, on what we’ve coined our WAVE. Wild or Weird (depending upon one’s view of the trip) Asian Vacation Extravaganza. Acronyms are HUGE in my former consulting world – both widely overused and frequently changing – so this seemed entirely appropriate. My family and friends have been so lovingly supportive throughout this process and are genuinely very happy that I finally put myself first. So I decided to blog about my trip to keep all of you apprised of my adventures as well as provide proof to my mother that I’m still alive. My brother is gut laughing right now at me using blog as a verb as I’m not the most tech-savvy and social media-friendly person. So I apologize in advance for what I’m sure is the basic nature of my blog, forthcoming tech issues, and the risk this becomes too tedious of a task for me and is promptly abandoned. First timer here so cut me some slack.