A while back Fern and I (Jim) were sitting on a beach in the Yucatan peninsula, our first major traveling experience together, and Fern turned to me with a serious look on her face. She told me that she needed to see more places outside of her hometown of Portland, Oregon. She needed to do some extended traveling, several months, and she wanted me to come with her. Being somewhat of a traveler myself, I told her I’d think about it. And I meant it.
Leaving for a few months at a time is a rather expensive endeavor. Maintaining a home in Portland, round trip plane tickets to far-away places, on-going bills at home, lodging, food, bus tickets, and all the other costs that go along with traveling. I didn’t make a lot of money so this could be tough. But what if I just uprooted myself and got rid of all those costs at home? Traveling by itself can be pretty inexpensive if one goes to the right places and gets used to a level of comfort that is, well, different than what we’re used to in the United States. If billions of people can happily survive in all sorts of living conditions then I can certainly adapt. Of course, if I’m going to get rid of my apartment, quit my job, and get rid of most of my unnecessary junk, then I want to make it worth while – see and experience as much as I can.
Before this question came up I was already aware that something needed to change in my life. I was comfortable but the path I was on wasn’t really leading me anywhere fulfilling. Many of my perspectives on life had evolved over the past few years. The only way to really see what else was out there was to get off the path I was on – get out of my comfort zone. I also knew that Fern had a similar feeling about her life. She needed to uproot herself too and she was fully ready for the challenge.
At that point, Fern had essentially spent her whole life in Portland. She had ongoing health complications stemming from lupus and the lifelong aftereffects of cancer and her outlook on life was certainly affected by these things. She combatted physical pain by climbing mountains, surfing, rock climbing, and doing yoga – pushing herself and giving her body the opportunity to feel truly alive. Mortality was not a vague distant concept for her. It gave her an itch to see a bigger picture of the world while she could instead of staying in Portland and planning for an uncertain future that would never be secure or even comfortable. I admired her strength and her willingness to seize the moment.
The more I thought about it the more it all made perfect sense. Really, the only reason not to do this was fear. Fear of losing everything comfortable and familiar. Fear of what could happen while traveling. Fear of not knowing what’s going to happen when we come back. Sure, bad things could happen, but bad things can happen any time, any place. People get in car accidents all the time but does that stop us from driving? Not for most of us. We can easily set aside fear to do things that need to be done.
I told Fern that I wanted to go with her, but instead of going for a few months, we should go for as long as we can. Go around the world. Maybe find some nice places to live for a while and work, get to know some other places and communities. I think she was pretty surprised and it took her about 2 seconds to say yes. It clearly felt right for her too.
We set a rough time for leaving and spent about 9 months preparing. Of course we had to enjoy our summer but I started getting rid of stuff, researching, planning, oh, and did I mention researching? The plan was coming together. Fern didn’t have much stuff cluttering up her life so she was ready to go but I had a lot of work to do. It was tough toward the end but somehow it all got done. We quit our jobs, stashed our remaining belongings, got the necessary gear, bought one-way tickets to the Philippines, and tried as hard as we could to spend some quality time with our loved ones, whom we would probably not see for some time.
And we took off…
