Some words from Michelle:
Renting your house out, temporarily moving abroad and travelling is actually not as dramatic as it first feels you know. The jacking in of jobs, the gathering of your possessions into one garage and the goodbye party were all tough in their own way but it turns out, that you find a routine wherever you are, even in a campervan. Emails and FaceTime become paramount, but settling into a new culture if only for a few days is comforting and totally rewarding and a sense of belonging ensues which we unwittingly hang onto.
So does it take a massive catalyst in your life to make this kind of change if only temporary? I honestly cannot answer that, but what I do know is that this has and continues to be our silver lining of our last ten years. It doesn’t have to be that dramatic though, you can just wake up, do your research and pull together the combined strength of your relationship with your partner and go for it… simples!
We are not living the dream, we have just changed one up for another because we had a good life, it just wasn’t fulfilling our desires. I am not contributing to this blog to convince others to travel (if convincing is needed then it is not for you) as it is not the elixir for everyone, maybe it’s the cottage in the country and making life a lot quieter and calmer?
We are spreading that ‘looked forward to’ retirement over a longer period, starting earlier, with work in between. We are testing and dipping our toes in all the time.
My Mum told me over a very long Facetime conversation the other day that she thinks we are going to become beach bums! Hmmm, I have pondered this observation of my mothers and nope, I really don’t think so, because we both need worth and purpose in our lives, we are just in the process of discovering new ways of achieving this, which is awesome. In the UK, the jobs, mortgage, car and routine of life provided this and we have spent the last 25 years in the security of that environment. It is secure for sure, but it is also the boulder that holds you steadfast to a way of life that had begun to make us less than happy. So we used that very security, the house and some of it’s equity to enable us to do this.
Read all about our travels and how we got over those tribulations by browsing through the site.
Have Fun
Michelle