Goals: Past, Present & Future
November 1, 2011 in blog, North America, Travelogue, United States
Dawn broke grey over our cottage on Cape Cod this morning.
We’ve been here just four days, long enough to unpack and for the children to each choose an “office” for their school work. My second cup of tea and a break between dictionary lessons for the nine year old and biology help for the thirteen year old has afforded a moment for reflection.
We’ve been traveling full time for over three and a half years now, quite by accident, on the one hand, and entirely intentionally on the other.
We thought we were taking a short year off and instead, began an epic chapter in our lives that is still unfolding.
When we left, we had goals:
- To cycle Europe and the fringes of Asia and Africa
- To make memories as a family
- To try new things.
When we decided to keep going we had more goals:
- To find a way to fund the adventure
- To give our kids a world class education through travel
- To touch their feet to each continent before they leave us
Each year we have specific goals. Last year those included:
- Spending half a year living in Guatemala
- Diving deeper into Guatemalan culture
- Developing literacy for the children in Spanish and increasing our own
- Developing our location independent careers and thus, our capacity for freedom.
It’s a satisfying feeling to meet those goals and to know that there are only as many accomplishments as we have dreams.
We’re in this little house as a respite between adventures.
A place to regroup, stage for the next big thing, and enjoy the best of what the east coast has to offer.
It will be fun to celebrate the holidays in our home culture with people we often miss this time of year.
So what does the coming year hold? What goals have we set for ourselves?
- To renew passports for some and sew more pages into others
- To choose a place to begin our Asian adventures, a place to live and work remotely from for a while
- To learn a new language or two (I’m thinking Mandarin might be a good place to start!)
- Soak our children in the people and thought, culture and practice of another hemisphere
It’s going to take me the few months we have here in this fishing cottage to get us off the ground and to the other side of the planet. There are a lot of logistical details to be sorted and research to be done. Family travel takes some planning!
It will be a pleasant way to spend part of the winter, snuggled underneath my portable rainbow of a Guatemalan blanket, remembering why we live this life, dream big dreams and keep reaching for the next goal.
If it is anything, it is worth it.
What are your goals for the year? Travel or otherwise?
Looking forward to seeing where you land! I am sure you will love Asia 🙂 Hopefully we will meet you there!
Just when I was feeling the stirrings of homesickness, you’ve reminded me why we’re so far away from home – for adventure, learning new things, and living out our dreams with our kids. Jennifer, you continue to inspire me. Thank you.
Sell the house and hit the road… that pretty much sums up the big stuff. You are an inspiration and I’m so glad we met up. Next year in Asia!
We’re headed in a week to Missouri and Silver Dollar City. But I’m really excited for next year when we’ll spend a week in Italy seeing the Colesseum, Pompeii, and the south of France.
Christina… oooh you’re going to LOVE Italy & France!! Lucky you!!
Good for you Jennifer and I can relate as we are also home for the holidays…the first time during our 6 years of non-stop travel. Despite the reverse culture shock it’s wonderful, especially since we lost two Dad’s/Grandpa’s last year.
Good language picks! 😉 So many travelers miss the value of language learning for kids through deep immersion.
My daughter is fluent as a native now in Spanish ( thanks to 5 years in Europe with extended time in Spain) and close to that in Mandarin, but we will be in Asia for at least another year to get her Mandarin reading and writing up to the same level as her English and Spanish.
Hope we can hook up as we will be doing LOTS of travel all around Asia this year and have already been invited to tour China. Keep in touch as to where you land! The kids can practice their Spanish and Mandarin together. 😉
Our goals this year are just having fun, deep Mandarin proficiency, lots of unplugged time, and healing.