Chris Rodgers, 34
Monica Miller Rodgers, 32
Chris
I grew up in east central Alabama and didn’t travel far as a child, but once I entered college, I soon found that I loved to see any place for the first time.
After graduating in electrical engineering at Auburn University, I took a position at a nuclear power plant near Monica’s hometown where we had met earlier during my co-op stint there. We soon began dating and these dates were often in new cities across the United States largely in coordination with our business travel at the time. Enjoying every adventure with her, we married in 2008 at a castle on the banks of the Loch Fyne in Scotland. Our wedding in Scotland was followed by a honeymoon in Ireland, allowing ourselves to get lost in beautiful scenery such as the Connemara Peninsula and trusting that our GPS would lead us back to our room.
From that time, we have continued to travel for every major milestone and event that gives us reason to celebrate rather than purchasing materialistic gifts. We settled in a wonderful historic neighborhood in Virginia near the shipyard where I worked on new and refurbished aircraft carriers for Northrop Grumman. Following my graduation from the College of William & Mary’s MBA program in Williamsburg, Va., I accepted a position with a global British company maintaining roots and subsidiaries around the world. For two years, I filled global management roles for my career development and was lucky that the love of my life was able to join me while she studied so that the office area simply becomes a hub from which to plan our frequent adventures. I’ve now accepted a longer-term position in Switzerland. As we take on this expat adventure, I’m excited to see what we learn from living abroad.
Monica
A little less adventurous than my better half, I’ve always dreamed of traveling and living abroad. My dad was in the military, so we traveled as I was growing up. Born in Germany, we also lived in El Paso, Texas before we settled in Lyons, Ga. As a family, we took a month-long vacation traveling across the United States. My love of visiting new places was instilled young.
I took my first big trip alone in college when I represented the Public Relations Student Society of America of Valdosta State University at a conference in Redondo Beach, Calif. Before graduation, I went on to study abroad in the Czech Republic. After graduating in 2005 with my Bachelor of Fine Arts in Public Relations, I moved five times in the next two years to Atlanta, Louisville, the Baltimore–Washington, D.C., area, and Hampton Roads.
Chris and I made a pact when we got married that we wouldn’t celebrate birthdays or anniversaries with presents but with trips. We’ve enjoyed that decision many times over. When he first came home one day in Virginia to tell me about the travel assignment, I was apprehensive. It took some time to get used to, but I’m so glad now that I took that chance.
To follow our dream of living and traveling internationally, I gave up my job with the Department of Defense, rented out our historic home in Virginia, created my consultancy firm Aubia Communications, and left my family and friends behind (the hardest part of following that dream). I finally obtained my Master of Communications Management from Syracuse University during our two-year travel assignment. As we continue our expat life here in Switzerland and I now work for a mulitnational corporation in marketing, I can’t wait to experience all this crazy ride has to offer.
Where we’ve traveled:
| Domestic | International | |
| Alabama | Argentina | |
| Alaska | Austria | |
| Arizona | Belgium | |
| Arkansas | Brazil | |
| California | Canada | |
| Colorado | China | |
| Connecticut | Czech Republic | |
| Delaware | England | |
| Florida | France | |
| Georgia | Germany | |
| Hawaii | Hong Kong | |
| Illinois | Hungary | |
| Indiana | Iceland India |
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| Kentucky | Ireland | |
| Louisiana | Italy | |
| Maryland | Lichtenstein | |
| Massachusetts | Luxembourg | |
| Michigan | Mexico | |
| Mississippi | Monaco | |
| Missouri | Morocco |
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| Nevada | Netherlands | |
| New Jersey | Paraguay |
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| New Mexico | Poland | |
| New York | Scotland | |
| North Carolina | Slovenia | |
| Ohio | Spain | |
| Oklahoma | Sweden | |
| Pennsylvania | Switzerland | |
| South Carolina | Tibet
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| Tennessee | ||
| Texas | ||
| Virginia | ||
| Washington, D.C. | ||
| West Virginia | ||
| Wisconsin |