About Us

Welcome to Go Beyond the Borders!

Hello! Hola, ciao, hallo, bonjour, 你好!

How we met:

Our journey together began in 2009, when we started dating as teenagers (Kacie was only 16!). We grew up just a thirty minute drive away from each other, but we didn’t meet until we attended the same rural high school in Southern Illinois. Our mutual friends were dating, so we ended up together kind of by default. Four years later we decided it was still going pretty well and made it official with a summer wedding.

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Our first time traveling:

To kick off life as newlyweds, we set off on our first big road trip and spent our honeymoon on a cruise to the Bahamas, which was the first time out of the country for either one of us. We then moved to St. Louis for Kacie to finish university. One year after our cruise, we had the opportunity to study abroad for a summer semester, touring some of the most beautiful places in Italy. (Admittedly, this did set the bar pretty high for future wedding anniversaries!) 

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Joining the workforce:

We settled down pretty quickly after Kacie graduated in 2015. We moved back to Southern Illinois for Derek to go to school. Kacie started a full time job in the banking industry and Derek worked in IT. We found ourselves on the path to the “Great American Dream”, but before too long we realized this path was taking us in a direction we didn’t want to be going. 

Planning something big:

By August of 2016 we both agreed that something had to change, but it took several months and many late night conversations to figure out what direction we wanted to take the next chapter of our lives. We knew we wanted to travel more, and spend more of our time doing things we loved. In order to make this happen, we spent more than two years prepping and planning for a future we once again felt passionate about.

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We moved in with Kacie’s amazing parents and continued to work full time in order to pay off all of our debts (including $30,000 worth of student loans!), and save up just under $20,000 to travel on. We originally planned to travel abroad for one year and see how things went. But life has a funny way of not working out like you plan.

Getting Started:

Around the time we were ready to start making departure plans, Derek’s cousin announced he would be getting married in the middle of our year abroad. There was also an opportunity to attend a blogging travel conference right around the same time. Because we only had enough credit card points saved up for one international flight, we chose to start 2019 with a road trip around the United States before attending the wedding and the conference in the summer. After that we still planned on traveling overseas for six months to a year.

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But while the road trip itself didn’t put too much of a dent in our savings, we had some other expenses that really set us back financially. Before we left, we invested in some better video and photography equipment, but between emergency vet bills, car maintenance, and having a laptop fail that had to be replaced (and virtually no income), our money was running out far quicker than our travel dreams could survive on! So we had to come up with Plan B.

Heading to China:

Finding the right course of action was a tough decision, but we eventually decided to work abroad. We moved to China in September of 2019 for Kacie to begin a one year contract teaching English in Nanjing. This kept us traveling while still earning money, and gives us a chance to focus on this website, as well as some passion projects.

As difficult as it can be to leave one’s culture, family, and everything you are familiar with behind, the potential for reward is great, too. Our first few weeks in China were not without their difficulties, but we slowly learned how to fit in to our new surroundings.

Then COVID hit. To make a long story short, the school I worked for started making things very challenging to continue working with them, so we were forced to either find something else or leave China. We transferred to a school in Yangzhou, China to wait out the global quarantine and finally get a chance to experience a bit more of China, including learning about Chinese tea culture and getting our very own e-bike!

Moving to China has given us the opportunity to experience another culture on a deeper level than we would have with just a quick visit, and I think it’s safe to say it will change the way we travel in the future. 

Go Beyond the Borders:

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Growing up in a small town, we never dreamed we’d have the ability to travel or live overseas. It has been a long, slow journey of challenging ourselves to get us where we are today, but we are incredibly grateful for each step of the journey. Traveling has taught us to experience the world we live in, in ways we could never have imagined before. It challenges our thoughts, our ideals, and most importantly our sense of who we are at our core. 

Go Beyond the Borders was created as a way to show you that you can achieve your wildest dreams. You can choose how you spend your time and who you spend it with. You can live a life you love. This website is here to show how we have overcome our challenges and to help you overcome yours as well. We’re here to show you how.

Want to get to know us a little better? Dive into the blog here to find out more or sign up for the email list to get future updates!

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