Finding a voice of reason between wants and needs.

Are everyday experiences like this something we need, or just want?

We have a lot to think about and consider—without the security net of being able to travel and keep our home it’s time for the if’s, what’s, and maybe’s to make way for firm decisions. We’re either doing this or we’re not. The irony amongst all this is, we’re not campers, and so the option of keeping our home and my job, buying a cheap van, or camper trailer, and hitting the campsites of a weekend and holidays isn’t what we’re looking for—we’re either all in or nothing—pack up, ship out, and explore Australia. So that leaves us two scenarios to work through—sell up and go, or stay and make the most of what we have. To help decide, obviously a great starting point for us would be to take the time to consider what each of those scenarios looks like, what’s reasonable, what’s not, and at the end of the adventure, what do we hope to have achieved?

If we sell our home and travel, we’re on our way to living out our adventure. We’re under no illusions that it will be all sunshine and rainbows—Alicia and I are well travelled and have sifted through enough social media posts from people who have had less than ideal, if not terrible, and even disastrous and horrific experiences. Of course, it can go horribly wrong. Even if we park the most terrible of potentialities like serious injury, accidents, and theft, there’s a whole host of far less serious, but still infuriating annoyances and inconveniences. Mostly trivial things like inconsiderate people, overcrowded locations, dodgy camp sites, break downs, and poor weather conditions. But even the trivial things can build up to the extent that everything becomes that little bit shit and overwhelming. And, at the end of the day, we’re travelling around in a box with the toilet almost in arms reach of the kitchen. But for no other reason than our gut feeling, we reckon this will be the experience of a lifetime. Days of repetition will be replaced by new experiences, places, and people.

If we decide that we just can’t risk it and aren’t willing to part ways with our home, well that’s not all bad either. We do love our home—we have plenty of space, it’s a great area, and we can definitely see our kids growing up here and letting themselves loose out in the yard. For all of our uncertainty though, we’re sure of one thing, and that is, if we stay, we will glide back into a lifestyle where each day is just like every other. We’ll attempt to stave it off for a while—we’ll be downtrodden and disheartened and make attempts to change things up a little, but inevitably we’ll slip back into the daily grind. Oh, and the days of enjoying watching families on YouTube travelling the county and living out their adventures will be long gone—we’d be far too bitter and envious to cope with that. We can avoid all the YouTube we like, though, but we’d always have this thing hanging over us. Not a sense of failure per se, but I suppose a real sense that we’ve missed out on an incredible experience and we’ve given in to fear and doubt. And not to mention the thought of telling our kids stories about how we were going to travel the country, and when asked why we didn’t, the answer of “we were worried about what the future holds” doesn’t quite send the right message. We want our kids to be resilient and self-confident, and to have dreams, hopes, and goals, and to be able to make calculated decisions and go for it. Of course, we don’t want our message to be “throw caution to the wind”, rather, to weigh up your pro’s and con’s, wants and needs, prepare for, and anticipate, some possible outcomes, and make decisions on those rather than inhibiting yourself through doubt and fear.

Just talking all this through, over and over, is helping us steer toward a decision—passing on the opportunity for an adventure of a lifetime will leave us with regret, and so it seems like a no-brainer. It’s not an unreasonable choice. How often do you see or hear all those sayings along the lines of, “live for today”, “life’s short”, and, well that’s all I’ve got. But you get the idea—Carpe diem and all that. I’ve known of many instances where people have been blindsided by some crushing, devastating news out of the blue, and suddenly all that matters is spending quality time and experiences with those you love. So, it seems then, that we’ve come to a decision. But that’s merely the beginning of many more difficult decisions and choices that lay ahead of us.