On our way
...and just like that, we’re off. Years of envisioning what this could be, months of active planning and logistics, and hundreds upon hundreds of hours of getting us to this point--a 6am flight out of SFO enroute to Belize via Dallas. It’s hard to describe in words what that really feels like, and the rollercoaster that has been our lives over the last few months. And I won’t attempt to document all of that, it would take days of me writing, but there are some things worth noting. Sometime around April of 2017, on a flight back from our family vacation in Costa Rica, Aila and I developed our plan of attack for this trip. A framework comprised of spreadsheets and word documents, a vision for what was possible for us and our 3 children. And here we are, sitting on that first flight. Over the last several months, the memories that have most vividly made an impression in my mind include, but certainly are not limited to:
- Scribbling all over our poster board world-map (feeling like kids in a candy shop when you get to choose any destination in the world to travel to)
- Family TV time with Parts Unknown and The Wonderlist in the evenings and watching the kids wide-eyed with enthusiasm dreaming of visiting new worlds (seeing your kids that excited about travel might be one of the coolest things about this)
- Booking and placing our first substantive deposit on an adventure, Antarctica; that is the first moment it was real for us...not necessarily because we “made a reservation”, but because real money was being spent
- Informing my work, the City of San Jose, of my plans, and the conversations that ensued,
- Soliciting, contracting, moving out of, and renting our home to a wonderful family
- Selling Aila’s beloved Mini Cooper to a fantastic lady, who was convinced of the fact that the transaction would change her life forever, and has me convinced as well (suffice it to say that the Mini could not have gone to a more deserving and wonderful owner)
- Problem-solving on how and what to pack for this trip, and the shopping that followed, and followed, and followed. I was literally making final purchases until the night before our departure
- Countless iterations of packing our bags, and trying to fit 1-yrs worth of life into less than 50 lbs.
- Experiencing the goose-bumps, anticipation, stress, anxieties, energy and exhaustion and everything in between that comes along with planning something like this
- And more and more and more, but one more, before I finish - the unbelievable amount of love, support, inspiration and partnership that was available to us from our networks of friends, colleagues and family. None of what we do is possible without that, none of it. We are so blessed to be doing what we are doing and hope to inspire others to step out of their own comfort zones, to venture into the unknown and to discover for themselves what might be possible.
Soon we will land in Dallas, and that will be the last time we set foot on American soil for 12 months. Since I moved to this country 33 years ago, at the age of 5, I have never been gone for more than a handful of months. How fitting it is to take our 3 children, on our first destination of our world tour, to the country that Aila and I went on our honeymoon. It’s beautiful and profound and a very fitting beginning to what is sure to be the trip of a lifetime. Belize, here we come.
