Travel the world: Preparing for a new life – the impact on our relationship.
A little more than a year ago we decided to change our lives drastically. One of the largest impacts it had was on our relationship. Our personal story:
One year ago
We knew each other for a few months and recently finished our 5 week road trip to Georgia. The question “What now?” was omnipresent. Continue to “just date” wasn’t really an option for us. My career wouldn’t give me the time to date someone that lives far far away, and at the same time we didn’t know each other long enough to start a long-distance relationship – which neither of us wanted. Living on different continents didn’t fit that picture. Thus, the real question was: should we go all in or not at all? And “all in” entailed pursuing our dream to create the freedom to live the life we imagined for ourselves and to travel full-time. A dream we would both regret not pursuing. Before we fully grasped its impact, we bought our STEYR and turned the key.
Now – Beginning of 2016
We still laugh with each other daily but we also cry, are frustrated, angry and surprised with one another.
Preparing for a complete new lifestyle was a gift and a challenge at the same time.
Having the same drive and goal in life brought us together and makes it easy to grow closer. This is where we inspire and motivate each other. When working together or driving the truck we are a team that runs like a well-oiled machine, with a few occasions of bickering – we are still not perfect 🙂
But although we are preparing for a “slower” life, we paradoxically find ourselves in a situation where we are far from slowing down. When not filling the money jar, we are working on the truck and the new apartment (our security blanket) or spending time with family and friends. Little time is left for doing nothing – doing nothing together – to be there in the moment and to just observe.
Note: Curious about the value of doing nothing. You might find this an interesting read: “The importance of staring out the window”
Pursuing our dream also meant that I had to turn my life around completely, absolutely nothing stayed the same. This was exciting in the beginning but as you can guess once this excitement calmed down there was an emptiness that had to be refilled. I did however underestimate its impact. For an independent soul as I, who had once a packed work and social schedule, becoming more dependent is a compromise/sacrifice that is difficult to accept. So why is this then a relationship challenge? Because the changes made were a joint decision and we realize that for our relationship to keep flourishing we have to re-establish a balance.
But no, we still don’t regret the choices made; we continue to follow the call of our dreams, together.
Do you remember this one from a few weeks back:
