We are down to the final countdown with only 2 weeks left before we begin our 2 year around-the-world adventure. We should be excited, but we’re not. With a trip of this magnitude we should have everything perfectly scheduled and know exactly what needs to be done. Yet, we are like a deer in the headlights; frozen, and not knowing what to do. We have been like this for the past few weeks and we find it to be a very strange feeling. We are lost in Limboland; a place neither here, nor there. We continue to go to our jobs; our daughter goes to her school. Life goes on just as it always has, yet, everything is different and it has us confused. The only things we now own are the items that we are taking with us on our trip and one vehicle, which will be sold before flying overseas. We are transitioning from our “normal lives” to the life of full time world travelers and we are finding it difficult to live in the transition. We have been uprooted, but still unable to leave. It’s all so strange.
We have had 5 years to plan our trip and in that time I have read countless blogs and books on other people that decided to travel long term and none of them talked about this transition period. They all went from working and owning a home to full time world travelers. Nothing was ever mentioned about this weird in-between transition period, so it is a bit of a shock to be going through it. I had always assumed that we would be happy, full of energy, and ecstatic in the weeks before leaving. But we are just the opposite. We feel numb and disconnected from reality. Our departure date is fast approaching and we are scrambling to remember what we are supposed to be doing these last 2 weeks. We are lucky that we will have a month of travel in the USA before flying overseas, as if we did forget something important, we will have time to take care of it.
We are confident that the weird funk we are in will go away as soon as our adventure begins on November 1st. At that point we will be able to focus on our new lives; the lives of full time travelers. We will finally be free to wander the world and visit the places that we have always dreamt of seeing. We will establish our new schedule of travel, photography, home schooling, and writing. Life will be simple and easier than it is now and we should be able to finally relax and enjoy ourselves as we follow our dreams. But until then, we wait in limbo…