There is a great quote floating around that says, “we travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us.”  If there is one sentence that sums up why we chose to take this “crazy” journey it would be this one.  When I read it, I felt like someone (ie the unknown author of this FB meme) “got me” and any doubt or fear that I had about our upcoming adventure disappeared almost instantly. After almost a year of planning, packing, planning, and packing some more, I had started to forget why we chose to do this in the first place, and this single FB meme quickly reminded me why just in time for us to set off on our bucket-list trip.

It’s in our blood…

We officially decided that we were going to “do this” in the Fall of 2018, but the idea had been in our minds for years, maybe even decades.  My husband and I both come from families that understand the importance of learning about the world we live in, and instilled this in both of us from early ages.  Before I was even in high school, I had traveled to Europe twice, and to various parts of the US. My maternal grandmother traveled often and I still remember her preaching to me how important it was to experience the world and other cultures before life/kids etc. settle you down.

When I was 21, and a senior at the University of Florida, I dual majored in Marketing and International Economics and spent a summer abroad in Europe to learn about the potential effects of the launch of the  Euro on the European  economy  For me it was more like, How to Party at all the London Clubs and Amsterdam Coffee Shops on a College Student’s Budget(just being real.) Whatever my original reason was for the trip, I came back a changed person with a new respect for the world and other cultures…as well as quite a bit of knowledge about the economy and London Pride Ale.  I also learned more about life and myself than I had in all four years of college, and I knew that travel would be a part of my life forever. Much like it was for my grandmother.

 

After I graduated, I took a Marketing position on cruise ships so that I could continue to see the world, but get PAID to do it…

It was there that I met my husband (who had the same idea as me,) as well as friends from all over the world whom I STILL talk to almost daily (many of whom joined me in my current business.)

My husband and I settled down in 2007 in South Florida, had two kids, and lived the “normal” life (mini-vans, soccer practice etc) for 12 years.  It wasn’t that we were unhappy.  We just didn’t know that there could ever be a way to live the nomad life again until the kids were out of the house and we were retired.

That all changed in 2015 when I fell into Network Marketing by complete accident and created a multiple 6-figure residual income stream that truly changed our lives…

 

In addition to being able to quit my job, this newfound virtual business gave me a new outlook on life and its possibilities. With no cap on income, we started to dream bigger (and I started to work harder to make them a reality.)  I started to surround myself with other entrepreneurs like myself and witnessed their travels with their families.  I knew that I wanted to give my children the same experiences that molded me into the person I was, and this opportunity gave us the freedom to do just that, but the kids were still little and I wanted to wait for them to be old enough to appreciate what they were experiencing.

When we knew we were ready.

In July of 2018 I earned an incentive trip to Hawaii through the company I am partnered with and we took the kids along (as well as our young niece who acted as our nanny for the 1.5 weeks.  That trip proved to be a great test for all of us.  15 hours of travel time, jet lag, delayed flights etc and the kids handled all of it beautifully (way better than me to be honest.)  We bonded as a family like never before.  They spent 0.00 minutes on their iPads, and we were so sad to leave that I actually considered a permanent move to Hawaii.  I soon realized that it wasn’t just Hawaii that gave me all the feels, it was this amazing adventure we experienced as a family.  After they aced the red-eye flight home, and my then 6 year old son continued to share everything he learned on our 4 hour trip to Hannah, I knew that if I had the ability to give them this experience more often, I was definitely going to do it.

A few months later my husband heard from a real-estate agent-friend of ours about the amazing rental market in our area.  He came home and told me, and the first thing I asked him was, “are you telling me that we can essentially get paid to travel?”  This started the conversation and the wheels were officially in motion.

We knew that we wanted to immerse ourselves into other cultures and truly live like the locals if we were going to do this. We wanted to visit far-away places like New Zealand and Australia, but a 2 month summer vacation wouldn’t give us the time we wanted to truly experience living abroad.   My husband and I both worked from our laptops, and my income was residual, so the only thing standing in our way was the kid’s school.

We started to research our options and it was then that we found out about World-Schooling…

I remember being in absolute shock that this was even a “thing.”  I mean, where was THIS hiding all along and why had I never heard of it before?  I started to follow the Bucket List family (check them out,) and got in touch with another family from my company that spends 6 months at home in Canada, and the rest of the year world-schooling their 2 daughters.  After chatting with them about our options we reached out to our school principal who gave us her blessing and was ecstatic about our decision.

The last thing to do was talk to the kids.  We wanted them to WANT to do this too, and even though they agreed that they would miss their friends and the comforts of home, they were sold on taking a year off of traditional schooling to see the world.

The plan was set and now the only thing left to do was figure out the logistics…

How do we make sure the kids are on track with their schoolwork?  What do we do about the house?  How do we travel with the dogs? Where should we even go now that we have an entire year?

Many world-schoolers opt to “unschool” their kids.  Essentially, the world becomes the classroom and there are no formal lessons or classes. Others pick and choose different online programs based on each child’s needs and interests.  Since we were only planning on world-schooling for a year, we quickly decided on Florida Virtual School’s FLEX program based on our principal’s recommendation.  It is a fully integrated online schooling program with real teachers, tests, classes etc that allow flexibitiy for traveling families like ours. Child actors, athletes, and those with schedule restrictions utilize this program as it allows them to get their schoolwork done in their own time. Another student from our school had used the program while out of school for a year due to illness and it kept her on track and set her up perfectly to go into the next grade as if she hadn’t missed a thing.  Since our principal was so happy with it we knew this was our best option.

We spent the next 10 months organizing, planning, organizing, and planning some more…

When my in-laws heard of our idea they happily offered to take the dogs while we were away.  Even though we selfishly wanted them with us, we knew they would be much happier around the entire family and playing ball with Poppa-Blu rather than on 14 hour overseas flights and 10 days of quarantine.

Once we knew the dogs were taken care of we were able to add more countries to the itinerary.  My husband has been practically everywhere from his years on ships, and always wanted to go back to New Zealand so that was his first choice. Meanwhile, I’m more of a museum/big city junkie and preferred to take the kids to Europe to learn about architecture, history etc.. We ended up compromising with 4 months in Europe (England, France, Spain, Italy,) and 4 months in New Zealand, Australia, Thailand, and Bali.  In between we will spend about 7 weeks back in the States to be “home” for the holidays and my annual company event in Phoenix.

As far as our home was concerned, it wasn’t even on the market for two weeks when it was rented by a young family for over the asking price for the entire duration of our journey (thanks Fred.)  Once that was taken care of everything started to fall into place.

 

 

I knew the next 10 months would be busy, but I had no idea how exhausting it would be…

 

Even though I finally hired an assistant to handle a lot of my daily tasks with my business, I was still working 14+ hour days/7 days a week in an effort to create new automated systems for myself and my team that would help them grow their businesses easier.  I now help others create the same freedom I have created for our family, and I didn’t want my travels to slow down THEIR progress in reaching their goals of freedom just because I was enjoying mine. In addition to this, the packing, planning, and endless to-do lists became overwhelming at times to the point that I would change the subject when anyone asked me about the trip because I simply didn’t have the energy to talk about it.

Through all the stress, work, chaos, planning etc. we NEVER second guessed our decision…

Don’t get me wrong, we have had our share of stress, fear, and comments from others (to our face and behind it,) but we have also found amazing support from our world-traveling family and friends, our amazing team,  and the world-schooling community who agree that it will make our lives richer than any material things could.  We know it won’t be easy. We know we will miss our friends, family, dogs, beds and other comforts of home that we don’t even realize we will miss yet.  We know this life isn’t for everyone (working on cruise ships wasn’t either,) but this IS for US, and we promise to share the good, bad, and ugly and help anyone who wants the freedom to have it too.

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