Over the last several months, close to a year really, since we decided to embark on Our Big Adventure (affectionately nicknamed OBA), we’ve experienced many different stages of preparation and corresponding emotions. It’s been a bit of a roller coaster already, and we haven’t even left the house yet!
The initial high
You know that feeling when you decide that although it looks big and intimidating, you get in line and commit to going on a roller coaster? That was the nervous but so excited feeling we had when we made the decision to go for it – to actually take a year off to explore the world and not wait any longer. A new horizon of possibilities opened up. Nothing was off limits! We were creating an adventure from scratch that was going to be completely our own. We’d made the decision to make this long-term dream of extended travel a reality.
The ride begins
Of course after making the decision, the work quickly followed. There were the logistical challenges of deciding where to go, at what time of year, in what sequence, how long to stay in each place, and how to get from one place to the next, all while planning for a full experience yet not breaking the bank. We binge-watched You Tube videos of full-time travelers and folks who had gone to countries we were considering (and many we hadn’t considered yet).
Although we never really doubted we were making the right decision, I definitely did start thinking about all of the things I was going to miss on the road. My comfort zone and habits (as well as our own bed) are pretty darned cozy. But then again, breaking out of our routines and challenging ourselves with the new and unexpected is kind of what this adventure is all about.
The sudden curves and big drops
I’ve heard a lot of inspirational speakers talk about how once you make a decision that’s aligned with your passion and values, that the path starts to easily open up for you. Well, that’s not exactly how it happened for us initially. It was a bit the opposite, starting with the disappointing and completely unexpected news of Ivan’s sabbatical being denied (after it’d initially been approved). And worse than that was the back and forth and the mental gymnastics of trying to understand what the heck happened. That was actually much more painful than the ultimate decision to quit, although it certainly wasn’t the way we’d hoped it’d go down. But we’d committed to our plan and were determined to proceed.
Subsequently, there were what felt like overwhelming decisions around health insurance. No sabbatical meant we were on our own, so we had to figure out not only the best insurance for while on the road, but also what to do for coverage when we came back for visits, and when we ultimately came home.
As we were dealing with that, some health challenges popped up, part of which, I’m pretty sure must’ve been stress related. Like my sudden, inexplicable aching back that lasted for over a month and threw my backpack plan into question. Or the foot that started hurting and kept me hobbling around for weeks unable to continue training for our Switzerland hike. I swear at some point it felt like most of my focus was trying to keep my body intact until we could leave! (And no, I don’t have a worrying problem 🙂 )
The gentle rolls
At a certain point, things started to even out and calm down. Our planning felt as complete as we wanted it to be. Afterall, we’ve never traveled for more than 3 weeks at a time, so we wanted to allow some flexibility.
As the stress started to wind down our attention turned to getting ourselves ready (health checkups, travel vaccines, narrowing down our packing lists) and getting our house ready for our home-exchange guests.
We went a little crazy sprucing up the house for them in ways we hadn’t done for ourselves in the 20+ years we’ve lived here. We painted under the kitchen sink and put down new contact paper. We updated our light switches and outlet covers, bought new heat vent covers, and installed new trim kits for the can lights in the hallway. We cleaned the walls and did touch-up painting. We vacuumed crumbs out of drawers and washed our potholders! It was a good way to burn off some anxious energy.
And gradually, the punch list on our fridge got shorter and shorter. Ivan’s last day at work came and we were down to our final days of waiting. We met with our wonderful neighbors who will keep the home fires burning while we’re gone, paused the garbage, forwarded the mail, and took care of all of the random details we could possibly think of.
The last stretch
It’s funny how, even after months of prep and planning, the last two days before we left were the most harried. We ran around all day continually finding more small things to fix or clean around the house (for the second or third time). We questioned our packing choices, moved things to the attic, re-examined our logistics, and completely cleaned out our freezer and fridge. Phew!
On to the real ride
And now, by God, it seems we’re ready to go. This is happening! The ups and downs of our planning and preparation phase are no doubt precursors of what we’ll experience when we head off. It feels we’ve had a proper warm up. Our Big Adventure awaits.
So here we go!
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