How it all started

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.” – Helen Keller

Spoiler alert - we are not “just in it for the blog.”

Rather, we needed a clever and available domain name and being the naturally witty and ingenious people that we are, we feel like we found one that suited us perfectly.

What are we in for, exactly?

Well, I am writing this on March 27, 2021, and we are preparing to pare down, pack up, and take off in a 5th wheel RV to travel around the country for a year(ish).

We sold our house; we’re slowing selling and donating our belongings; we’re coordinating changes to our (mostly my) work duties; we’re pulling the kids out of school; and we’re planning an epic, once-in-a-lifetime adventure of picturesque hikes, quiet and starry nights, family sing-alongs and creative learning opportunities… Ok, we might be romanticizing this a bit.

Either way, the countdown is on. We are all in. Despite the occasional sleepless and worry-filled nights, we are committed to making this work and learning as we go.

What are we thinking?

Uff dah, has it been a year. Like I need to tell you that, right? If you are a human and you do not live in New Zealand (which in my mind is a women-run utopia of healthy, well-adjusted, rational people who essentially eradicated covid before it began), then I don’t need to tell you that it has been a YEAR.

If you are a parent of young kids, then I especially don’t need to remind you of the struggle this past year has been. Why, we are still in it! To put it plainly, and as a colleague of mine recently said, it has been a grind.

First it was learning how to distance learn while “working” from home with shaky childcare options; wondering if and when, how and how often, to leave the house for what reasons; and what precautions were necessary.

Then came the daily weighing of bad option 1 versus bad option 2; second-guessing myself and whether I was prioritizing the right things. The decision fatigue was at an all-time high. A cloud of worry, fear, guilt, and anxiety amplified the fragility of my emotional well-being and followed me around relentlessly.

I am tired. I am burnt out. I am done.

Caveat: In true comparison-guilt fashion, I feel the need to outwardly recognize the struggle others have faced this year and admit that we did not have it nearly as bad as we could have. We stayed healthy, since I work for myself and had more flexibility than many, we had support through family, friends and neighbors. We managed.

But failing to acknowledge the personal struggle, the mental health toll, and the big questions of lifestyle choices and priorities that have come up for me (us) in this covid year would be a mistake. Just because my circumstances could have been worse does not delegitimize the experiences I had. So come at me, bro.

Burnout is one thing, but there are other reasons for this adventure. Reasons that have emerged as questions and reexaminations of life out the despair of this covid year. Reasons like realizing we want to move but not knowing where or to what, reexamining our habits of mindless consumerism, questioning the effectiveness of the education system for our kids, and on and on. I plan to go into these more in future posts.

For now, it is enough for us to take a chance (or two). If we aren’t willing to do this now, at this time, we never will be. And if it doesn’t work, at least we will then have an answer to the question, “why not?”

-Annie