Trying to capture the spirit of why we are here, at this moment, with these plans is hard to impossible.

It was a laundry list of events that led us here to this place where I’m typing on my computer and Christian is watching YouTube videos about WestWorld all in preparation for world travel.

But seriously, it is a big decision in one way or another to uproot your life, even temporarily, to travel for an extended period. To top it off, I turned in my notice to work. Now, I’m soon to be unemployed.

This was a dream of mine for as long as I could remember and at each stage in my life I said I would do it. In some ways I did. I left California at 23 and went to live in Turkey, with no job, and $900 dollars in the bank. But I had two flatmates who I knew from study abroad there and figured if I failed I’d return in 3 months. I stayed for seven months working odd jobs to pay the rent and student loans. I barley traveled outside of Turkey — a short excursion to Greece– but I loved it. Then I had to return to the “real world” and make money.

But I always wanted to leave and go back somewhere. I figured at 25 I would go to a Master’s school abroad. Instead, I met my husband and ended up in New York. I went to graduate school in New York and got a master’s. Not a bad deal, but still not what I had planned as an idealistic 20 year old.

Fast forward almost 5 years later and I am watching my mother help take care of my grandmother. She had plans to leave California and didn’t. Then my dad got sick, really sick, and I had to take time off work to take care of him in California.

I learned about his terminal illness and I also made plans to get him into rehab. The whole experience was exhausting, emotionally and physically. I spent a lot of time crying on the freeway as I drove back and forth from my mom’s house to my father’s house to the hospital. That experience gave me a glimpse of what is to come.

Thankfully, my father is learning how to live with his new reality and we hopefully have a few/ many years left with him. But, I realized, at that moment, that I was an adult and I was only going to bend more toward my comfort level and less away from it. So was my husband. He already has a high comfort threshold to begin with. Christian at 50 may never leave the house except on a cruise or all inclusive hotel.

Then I woke up to back pain for no reason. WTF!

In my mind it was now or maybe later but as a different person. I thought we should go while we are in our 30’s. Still excited about new adventures. Still less afraid. This experience may turn us into adventurers who will grow less afraid with the years and not more. Either way, for a multitude of personal and professional reasons, 2017 seemed more realistic to travel the world than 2018 or 2019.

 

 

My Husband’s Travel Map: