…..Or a single “crazy” idea.
Maybe this isn’t all there is. Maybe we can choose to live our life purposefully right now. Maybe we don’t have to wait until we retire to enjoy “the good life”. Maybe we could plan an immediate future that looks exactly the way we want it to. Maybe we could create a life of abundance that has nothing to do with material goods. Why couldn’t we do it? Other families do it. Why couldn’t we make it work if we really wanted to?
These thoughts and more entered our heads and left our lips as we discussed and discussed our idea. Our big, kind of crazy idea. Our idea to become a nomadic family and make our “home base” anywhere but our home country. Why?…. Why not? Our vision is to travel around the world and constantly strive to touch land in every single country. To learn something about the myriad of cultures on this planet and bear witness to the threads that bind humanity. Why such a big goal? Because big goals may never be completed but they will keep you busy… and excited!
Many may not understand our decision. Maybe they think it is impractical or rash or dangerous or just plain crazy.
But is our idea really all that crazy?…..
Isn’t the idea of working away the healthiest and most capable years of our lives in the pursuit of a brief reward called “retirement” kind of crazy? Isn’t crazy complaining about a materialistic society almost compulsively without actually removing oneself from it? Is the term “crazy” not often defined as “the act of doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result”?….
We do not want to do what the majority before us have done.
We do not want to work the days away dreaming of a magical land called “retirement”. We do not want the latest gadgets and toys. In honesty, we do not want “security”. We want FREEDOM. Happiness. Joy. Exploration. We want a rich and full life on our own terms.
And so we are planning. We are saving. We are researching. and we are excited!
We realized recently that the first steps of our journey have already happened….. we have visited several countries, some of them multiple times. We have traveled on our own and we have traveled together. We have experienced finer travel and have pushed through bare bones travel. We have gotten sick (and gotten better!) in foreign lands. We have read…. about the joys of planning an indefinite journey, and the dangers that can arise; about traveling families and extreme backpackers; about health and safety abroad and about what it is like to be an expat; about making money on the road and how to sell (almost) everything we own. We have stayed in hostels, hotels, and tents. We have traveled by plane, boat, bus, train, metro, car, rickshaw, bicycle, and foot. We have gotten lost on roads we do not recognize and we have found pieces of ourselves along the way.
So what now? Now we work. We work to educate ourselves even further. To save and save some more. To stop undertaking tasks that take us further from our goal. To downsize. To include our friends and family in our excitement. We work because our “retirement” is getting turned on its head…. and its less than a year away!
We hope you will join us on our journey. Read along with our blog, check in on our website every so often, visit us on the road, or send a young traveler along to partake in our adventure for a while. Whatever your level of involvement, we hope that it adds something positive to your own life.