Our alma mater invited us to share our story as part of their “Tell Us Tigers” series. We were honored to be able to take part and hope that our story might inspire others to chase their dreams. The post can be viewed on Princeton’s official Instagram or Facebook, and the content is included below.
When Yi invited me to watch the X-Men trilogy in the theater of Colonial Club in 2011, we had no idea that one day we’d be newlyweds traveling the country in a Winnebago RV. But a simple common interest led to more movie nights, shared meals and conversations that saw the sun rise.
A year later, we took our first road trip to Mt. Rushmore to commemorate Yi’s naturalization and our anniversary. On that trip and each after, we fell in love with each other and the road, and our road trip romance came full circle when I proposed at Colonial during Reunions 2015 and we celebrated our wedding at Mt. Rushmore in 2017.
By then, we’d already started researching RVs and full-time travel, but most days it felt like a pipe dream. We’d followed traditional paths, me through law school and Yi through business school, and attained the success and stability our parents worked so hard for after migrating to the States from Puerto Rico and China. Moving into an RV meant big changes — downsizing, leaving my law firm, setting up a remote office and more — but we were committed to turning our ‘one day’ into ‘day one.’
In September, on day 29, we celebrated our first wedding anniversary as full-time RVers. We hit day 100 last week. This photo was taken on day 91, hiking the Baldwin Trail in Sedona, with Cathedral Rock in the background. In these months, we have traveled to 19 states and 11 national parks (bringing us to 45 and 20 total). Our goal? Visit all 50 states and as many national parks as possible to witness history across their diverse cultures and landscapes.
We call ourselves @rvleaguers and nomad nerds because Princeton taught us that learning doesn’t stop once you walk out of FitzRandolph Gate — it’s a lifelong journey. On the road, we challenge ourselves to explore the unfamiliar and truly taste freedom. We have a marriage founded at the best damn place of all (Princeton!), unfolded over thousands of miles and growing every day. The road can be long and unpredictable, but RV life has shown us that if we face it together with love and curiosity, there’s no limit to what we can do.