My Daughters

Sofiah is 8 and just finished the third grade.  She was with me for two years at Lausanne.  Though she is reserved and not the most outgoing child, she has made some good friends at school.  When we first started to talk about the move she became very upset.  She cried and assured us she would not move. 

“Mrs. Dunmyer said all the students who are moving could live with her.”  We said, “OK”, which surprised her, and she decided that ultimately she wanted to be with mom and dad wherever we go.  We build it up as ‘family time’.  Still, she is hesitant.                                                                                               
Kaia is 6 and just finished first grade.  She’s spunky and a social butterfly.  She seems OK with leaving and often asks a lot of questions about the places we plan to go.  “Will we get a lot of snow?”  What animals will we see?  Will we be able to do our schoolwork by a pool?”

But how will they react when we actually leave our home, the house where they have lived for their entire lives?  The broken routine?  The lack of family and friends within driving distance?  Will they resent my decision when they grow older?  Again, time will tell. 

STUFF

It all began when my wife and I decided to set monthly goals each year, one of which was to get rid of at least one item every day of the month.  The reason? 

I have too much shit.  Don’t we all?  I mean, I’m not a hoarder or anything, and I am organized enough that some people might think I have a slight case of OCD.  I collect comics, coins, books, steins, pint glasses, vinyl records and more.  Besides our own furniture I have four generations of stuff from my family; my grandfather’s WWII medals, my grandmother’s silverware and china, all the family pics; you get my point.  The list goes on and on...

Most of the STUFF sits around to collect dust or is stored away in drawers and boxes.  Very little of it is utilized in any meaningful way.  So when I started to get rid of a lot of things a weight felt lifted. 

Moving sales, Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, EBay, Goodwill; there is no shortage of places to sell or give away your possessions.  Looking back, I cannot think of one item that I regret giving away or selling.  In fact, I continue to get rid of more and more, especially since we will be traveling with no permanent home. 

Yes, many of my possessions hold sentimental value; a book from my mother, my dad’s old Yankee’s hat, my first report card, a card made by my daughter. But how many of those things do I really need?  The time I have spent throughout my life rummaging through generations of items that were not even mine!  How many minutes or hours, even days have accumulated, time which I could have spent pursuing other interests? 

I dare not do the same to my children.  Sure, I will keep a few things of deep sentimental value and for items that are useful, but I cannot even begin to express how liberating this ‘purge’ has been for the mind and soul. Even deleting the endless emails that I have stored away in folders and subfolders has been cathartic!  My digital footprint may be larger than my actual footprint.  Some of the emails and documents have not been viewed in years!

George Carlin nailed it perfectly:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dn1u6tzwRxA

HOUSING

Probably the scariest part of planning is the uncertainty of where we will live.  Until a few weeks or so before we leave we have no idea where our location will be, much less our residence.  The idea of living in a cramped RV for a year or more just does not sound like my idea of fun.  We all need our space, especially my two daughters who seem to fight more and more each day.  Nor do we want to live in a pay by the week hotel in some crappy part of the city, but we may well be, at least temporarily. 

Travel-nursing companies provide housing stipends but when we spent the summer in Asheville a few years ago, we learned that it’s not so easy to find a home on Airbnb or Craigslist without putting in a lot of time and effort.  Niki and I were stressing big time.  Only two weeks before we left we were lucky and found a kindred teaching soul who let us rent her furnished second home.  Even then, until we arrived, we weren’t sure what we were getting would be habitable for two months.

Luckily, the home was nearly perfect; location, size and all.  All we can do at the present moment is spend time searching and asking questions.  I will let you know how the process goes, but it’s scary not knowing where exactly you will live.