Today was a total kick-back, do-nothing Sunday. With the exception of the Old Timers clearing out of the campground and a shopping trip to Walmart, nothing of note happened. We even skipped the workout.
Fortunately, the idle time gave us a few moments to reflect on our tip and how our lives have changed.
For anyone interested, here are our thoughts:
At the macro level, the trip has worked out about as we envisioned — traveling the country to look for a place to live, see interesting things and visit family and friends. Moving around has been relatively easy, the coach has performed well and we quickly adapted to living in a small space. Setting out, we estimated it would take about a year to find a place to live. The reality is we will still be on the road at the one-year mark and nowhere close to finding a place to settle. Time has certainly slipped by and there is still a lot of country to see. However, there is no doubt we are enjoying the experience.
The day-to-day picture is somewhat different and there is no way we could have anticipated the daily occurrences that makes the trip interesting. The faithful reader of this triplog is well aware of the people, places and events that drifted through our life these past months. Somehow it seems like an endless stream of surprise, enjoyment and frustration. Each day is unique and we never quite know what to expect.
I can’t emphasize enough how much our life has changed. A corporate career is a very structured home-to-work-to-home existence. To be sure, there are challenges and surprises in the workplace but generally worklife is on a schedule and you have a good idea of what you would be doing sometimes years in advance. Weekends are 48 hour windows for chores and vacations are cherished moments of maximized relaxation. Personal fulfillment and social status is mostly tied to what you do, where you work and the stuff you are making payments on.
But all that has changed.
Life is now unstructured and there are times when we have very little control over events — sometimes the best you can do is just roll your arms and watch the show. Aside from problem-solving skills, most of what we learned working in the corporation is useless. Planning focuses on weather, forwarding our mail and avoiding holiday weekends. Our mindset is totally different. Gone is the beat-the-clock lifestyle and I finally calmed down enough to read a book or have a conversation without thinking about five other things.
There is also a very subtle realization that life is no longer dependent on a corporate job. Career anxiety has been replaced by a self assurance that if we want (or need) to return to work, we’ll find something to do. Gone are the old measurements of success and employer intimidation. Best of all, I now know how my career turned out and I’m o.k. with it. In the end, it was only a source of financing and I can’t believe I took it all so seriously.
So, for now the Great Adventure continues.