Are You Sure You Want To Do This?

Two years ago we bought a big map of the world, put it up on the wall and put pins in the top ten places each of us wanted to explore. The map served as an inspiration to follow our dream of doing a round the world trip for a year in the not too distant future. Well, that distant future starts in three months, and we are very excited. 

Are you sure you want to do this?

Trust me, it is not an easy decision when you are in your mid-fifties; these are some of the questions we asked ourselves:

• Why do we want to do this?
• How important is it for each of us to go?
• Can we afford it?
• What about work? If we can’t get leave of absence will we spend the whole trip worrying about what to do to earn a living when we come back?
• How much change can each of us tolerate? Change is very stressful.
• Can we deal with the guilt should the worst happen to the people at home?
• What impact will this adventure have on our marriage?
• Are we willing to accept the self-discovery which inevitably will happen?

We have to go!

We had to be ready to follow our dream, financially and mentally, and we took the time to talk through all the emotions and practicalities before we finally got the courage to finally say “Let’s do it”, and set the wheels in motion. For financial reasons, we changed our dream to last 7 months instead of 12 months, which we feel very comfortable about. We do not have to sell the house and put all our belongings into storage, and we will have our home and own things to come back to, which we think will make the transition much easier than having to find a new place to live. It will be difficult enough as it is.

 

Andy got a year’s leave of absence, and I had to resign from my job. Not an ideal situation, but we believe that it will all work out, and that we will be ‘rewarded’ for having the courage to follow our dream. We are convinced that after our break from ‘real life‘ we will be invigorated and rejuvenated as well as more comfortable with ourselves, each other and our life. Not going seems too high a price to pay!  

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