Challenges on the Big Year

We made it, folks: halfway through our journey! Reflecting on the adventures we've had so far, we realized that while this trip has been an amazing experience in so many ways, it's not all cool rentals and sightseeing. This year is not about being on vacation - even though sometimes it seems like it should be. In reality, it is about having experiences in new places as a family, while we try to keep up with work, school, and life. It can be a tough balancing act. 

Here are a few hard things from each of us as we look back on our Big Year thus far. 

MARGARET'S HARD THINGS

1. I always find it hard to leave a place full of family and friends that we love. 
2. We've been in a lot of new places, with routines and rules we've never encountered before. One of the hard things for me is adjusting to that new place and trying to find some structure.
3.  Our teachers (ahem, parents) are great, really they are, but it's hard to adjust to a new teaching  style.
4.  That time when we had car snacks for lunch, tacos for supper, hotel overnight, and a hotel breakfast in the morning... for two days in a row.  Not the best.
5. Getting fed up with each other on long car rides. It happens. 

LIZ'S HARD THINGS

1. Dealing with the day to day of life remotely. Thanks to a fabulous support team handling our mail (thanks, Mom!) and watching our property (thanks, Kevin!), it has been manageable, but the day to day of life - taxes, insurance, dealing with fallen trees and damaged sheds from a wind storm, is more annoying and harder on the road.

2. The unknowns of travel - As the chief hotel/Air BnB booker, I always worry that the place I've booked is not up to snuff, or I got the day or the address wrong. There have been a few fails. Like the house made of paper, the apartment with no living room, and the Super 8.  We have gotten lost a few times but are working on embracing the adventure of it all. It can be a struggle when we are tired and hungry and lost and have no internet.

3. Packing and unpacking every few days. We are learning to savor and plan rest days where we just hang out in our rental home, get caught up on work, and don't drive or pack or navigate.

4. Losing things - did I pack it in a weird bag? Did I leave it at the last hotel? Where is it??

5. Home school - The students whine a bit about math. One of the teachers is pretty inadequately trained; fortunately the other has a PhD and 25 years teaching experience.

6. Tech - What is the internet password? Can I log on to work from a foreign country? Where is my phone? (oh, wait, I lose my phone in regular life too).

                  

TREVOR'S HARD THINGS

1. Getting sick at Big Bend. I couldn't enjoy the hikes at all.
2. Being crammed in a car for a million hours.
3. Staying in hotels for days and days on end.
4. Leaving Nova Scotia.
5. Leaving places in general

JOHANNES' HARD THINGS

It is interesting to read these and reflect on the tough times. I do detest the IG lifestyle where we tend to celebrate the great moments in life via pictures and social media posts, and bury the difficulties we all face. Here goes:

1. I am still writing (books, papers, etc) and not having a consistent place to get my thoughts out is tough for me. While I love reading and reviewing a draft in a new place (ideally with a coffee in hand), writing on a laptop, crammed on a couch is far from ideal.

2. I worry that our kids (as awesome as they are) crave the sort of structure we just can't provide as we travel. While we have tried to book longer stays in a few places, we are all being tested to adapt and remain flexible. This is tough for all of us. 

3. Liz and I learned during our first road trip (back in 2009) how best to organize our travel schedule. That said, long days in unfamiliar cities can bring out the worst in me. I still get worried about keeping everyone safe sometimes - in new places, around new people, and yes in the car. This *might* not make me the ideal passenger, from time to time (BRAKELIGHTS!)

4. As Liz mentioned, traveling doesn't magically make the minutiae of life disappear. Applying for jobs, keeping the kids on track for schooling, the administration of bills, obligations, and thinking about our life post Big Year sometimes cloud my mind and takes away from the whole point of this year.

5. We miss people. Our friends, colleagues, my hockey crew, our family.

Despite these difficulties, I don't regret this year at all. I feel deeply connected to my darling family and feel like we have all gotten some perspective on our life: what we love; what we don't; how we want to be; and just how big the world is.