Former Teacher Recalls Quitting Her Job and Traveling in Her Van (Exclusive)

10 years ago, Meg Farley graduated college and immediately jumped into a teaching job after earning her degree at age 22. The progression was seamless for the graduate whose sights were set on a teaching profession until she realized five years later that she still had more to learn.

It wasn’t the curriculum or the academic level; in fact, she landed her preferred first grade in the same school where she had student-taught prior. She loved working with kids, a rewarding aspect of her day-to-day that kept her going for nearly half a decade.

The job made sense professionally, but also personally: her dad was a teacher, her place of employment was in her native Nebraska, plus her out-of-state college boyfriend went to grad school and lived with her locally before they relocated to Washington together two years later.

Though she landed a first-grade teaching job upon her move to the Pacific Northwest, an obvious sign that she was great at it, she still longed for more. One particular recess on a beautiful snow day had her staring out the window at the mountains, questioning why she wasn’t on them herself.

The thought would reoccur, especially as someone who had always vacationed in the mountains to ski and explore throughout her childhood despite living in Nebraska. A longing for adventure weighed heavy on her, especially after feeling “burnt out” and “stuck” amid her post-grad successes.

“I went to college, I got my masters. My parents are going to be so upset if I leave,” Farley tells PEOPLE in an exclusive interview about the start of her unexpected trajectory that was soon to unfold. “But, I just kept having those visions and those thoughts, ‘I want more for my life.'”

After five years of teaching, Farley quit — or as she put it, “I was basically starting my life over.” However, it was more of a gradual step away from the job as she made an active effort to put her physical and mental health first.

Farley simultaneously profited off her well-being upon landing a fitness coaching gig for Beachbody on Demand (BODi), which ultimately allowed her to put teaching in the past for good. “It truly is 100 percent what got me to where I am now,” she admits.

“I was betting on myself. I kept saying, ‘I’ll leave my teaching job once I match my income with my Beachbody income,'” she recalls, though wound up quitting $8,000 short of matching her teacher income of approximately $50,000 amid the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

Although Farley remembers that time as “really scary,” she was confident that she’d “find a way to figure it out.” Plus, she knew she had teaching to fall back on if she needed it (however, she’s pretty sure that won’t happen).

“I never want to go back… it literally was such a relief signing those papers. I sold all of my things,” Farley says. “I just get emotional about it because I was just so unhappy and I was just not the person that I was meant to be because of teaching.”

Farley says the fitness coaching job “opened up so many different doors” for her in the three years that followed, allowing her to pursue her love for travel while in the PNW. In 2023, she broke up with her boyfriend of 10 years and moved from Washington to Oregon to live with friends until that May.

“Then I bought a van,” Farley tells PEOPLE of the next stop of her journey that brought her to Colorado. “I was just like, ‘This is a new shot at life where I can go wherever I want to go. This is a new opportunity. I’m free!'”

Despite her van breaking down “so many times,” the free-spirited traveler says it was literally the vehicle that brought her out of a “depressive” state and forced her to “learn so much” about herself while road-tripping solo from Oregon to Utah to Nebraska to Colorado and beyond.

“I did a 20-day backpacking trip, the John Muir Trail, which was 250 plus miles in California, and had hosted five group trips and just basically had the busiest year of my life. The most fun year of my life,” Farley recalls, prompting her to settle down in the Centennial State.

However, “settle down” looks a bit different on Farley who spends the majority of her year globetrotting as a group trip host for TrovaTrip, the first group travel platform that powers content creators to bring their online communities offline through world-class experiences.

Farley began sharing her journey on social media as she began to pivot away from teaching and lean into health and wellness, using her Instagram as a platform to connect with others who are also passionate about the space.

To date, Farley’s racked up over 130K followers on Instagram (known as “Moving Mountains Meg” online), where she attracts like-minded adventure junkies who group trip it with her, in addition to outdoorsy and wellness brands who partner with the freelance photographer and videographer for content.

“I’ve done a Colorado road trip… Nepal, we did a 10-day trek to Annapurna base camp… Two different spots in Canada, so Banff and then the other side of Canada, camping adventures, Yellowstone, and then another Colorado one, and then I just did Bali,” she shares of her recent travels.

Farley sold her van right before traveling to Bali — however, hopes someday to return to that lifestyle and own “a nicer van” in the future.

“Coming up next year we’re doing Kilimanjaro, so it’s a 10-day or eight-day trek as well — and then Patagonia,” she continues. “We’re also going to do a tropical one next year. Trying to figure out whether that’s going to be Ecuador, Costa Rica, Thailand.”

Farley makes clear that she’s not the guide on these trips, noting that someone local takes the reins of that responsibility.

“My job is to get all the girls in a group chat from my social, where I market the trips, and then prep them before we go,” she explains. “I usually have two or three different calls to get them ready to go because there’s a lot to learn, like, ‘We can’t drink their water, we need to get this filtered.'”

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“And then once we’re there, I’m just one of the girls,” Farley continues. “I am hanging out with them. I’m doing all the activities. I’m taking photos. I’m just creating content for them to use and memories for them to have… it’s so cool.”

To onlookers who assume her job is easy, Farley admits that it’s still a grind despite her passion and profession intertwining. Maintaining a following on social media and effectively utilizing its ever-changing algorithms requires consistency, interactivity — and of course, high-quality content.

Plus, Farley’s her own boss.

“The most time I’ve taken off is 21 days, and that is this last year when I did the John Muir Trail and I had no service,” she says. “I knew I was going to take a hit because I knew you had to be consistent… so I’m still working to build that backup. I lost a lot of followers during that time,” she adds.

“I wouldn’t say it’s easy, but it’s worth it,” she continues. “I enjoy my job every single day and I love that I’ve met so many rad, amazing people and I’ve had so many awesome opportunities since leaving teaching.”

Ironic for the person who spent a portion of her life instilling lessons to others, yet it was her own self who still had more to learn.

And now, one decade later, Farley’s confident in what she’s taught herself since her new life pursuit: “I love it so much and I am fulfilled.”