Many people have asked me what made me want to go on a cross-country road trip. The short answer is that I’ve always wanted to do one and I’m at point in life where I need to learn how to rest and figure out what I want (as opposed to what others tell me I should want) and this is a good way to do it. For the long answer, I need to back up a little.

In early October 2025, I was laid off. It was rough. I loved working at Runkeeper. The company has been part of my life for the past 10 years. When I was in college, I did a 6 month co-op there. After graduating, I worked there full time for 3 years. And after a few years at Amazon, I went back to Runkeeper and had been there for 3 years when the layoffs happened. It really felt like the end of an era.

I gave myself a week off before looking for a new job, but when I started looking again, the idea of going back to work gave me anxiety. I was also extremely fatigued and realized that I’ve been burned out for years. Some of you might be thinking, “Priscilla, how are you burned out? Your work life balance was great, you didn’t work on Fridays, and you worked from home, which allowed you to work from anywhere in the world and do laundry during your work day.” The answer to your very logical question is that Runkeeper wasn’t the problem. The problem was that I never learned how to rest. My whole life, I’ve made productivity a big part of my identity and self-worth, which means that even my rest had to be “earned” and had to be “productive”. When I realized that, I decided to take the rest of 2025 off to learn how to truly rest and hopefully put it into practice.

In November, I drove to the Smoky Mountains and spent a week there with a friend. I drove because we were in the middle of a government shutdown and I didn’t want to deal with airports. It’s a 15 hour drive that I split into 2 days. On the second day, when I was somewhere in Tennessee, I found myself thinking that it would have been so much faster to fly. And I realized that that is exactly why it was good that I drove. Driving forced me to slow down, to take a breath, and just be. Yes, I had audiobooks and podcast episodes queued for the drive, but when you’re on the road for so long, you eventually get tired of listening to things and need silence. It was in that silence, on a highway in Tennessee lined with orange trees, that I realized that sitting in a car for many hours with nothing to do and learning to enjoy it was exactly what I needed.

While I was at the Smokies, that thought stayed with me. I’ve been wanting to do a cross-country road trip for a long time, but never seriously considered it because it would mean taking a few weeks off of work and finding someone who is also willing to take a few weeks off to do it with me. But as I sat on the porch of our cabin, I realized that I don’t need anyone to do it with me. I know people all over the US and Canada. I could visit all those people and stop at a few other cities and national parks along the way. That way, I wouldn’t be alone for the entire trip, but I would have enough alone time to recharge my introvert social battery. And so the road trip was born.

The idea of going on a road trip alone and spending most of the year unemployed is slightly terrifying. But it’s also very exciting. It’s something that Priscilla from 6 months ago would never have done and I’m proud of myself for stepping out of my comfort zone. I don’t know what will come out of this road trip or who I’ll be at the end of it. Some of my friends joke that I’ll come back with blue hair, tattoos, and a nose ring. That is extremely unlikely, but I do hope that I’ll come back more me. That I will have grown into myself and by growing into myself, expand out of myself, if that makes any sense. I have all my stops planned out, but I also have no expectations and am open to veering from the plan. So here’s to having fun, truly resting, and enjoying the views along the way. Thank you for coming on this road trip with me!