8 months ago we started our nomad life. We set out on a journey that has changed completely our lives. We sold everything and left our previous life behind. Now we live around the world and all we need is in our suitcases, we embraced a new nomad life!
January 2017
Our “big adventure idea” came to life in Thailand in 2017. Joking around, we all talked about selling everything and going to see the wold. It actually happened! Never underestimate a dream, if you believe in it strongly why shouldn’t it come true?!
There is something about Thailand. At this point I can say that it is for us a place of change, of evolution, of new beginnings. In 2017 this is where we decided to start this new adventure, our travels around the world. Something clicked inside all of us. Well maybe not for Luca since he was only 11 months! We all were curious to see what the world had to offer. The cons did not weigh more than the pros on our scale, so why not take the leap?
October 2018
In October 2019 we were back in this amazing country. We were 5 months into our nomad life around the world and again Thailand brought us to new changes. We realized that up to that moment we were traveling as tourists. We had our whole year planned out. We bought most of our plane tickets. We were rushing through places trying to see as much as possible. We wanted to make sure that we didn’t miss anything in those 14 months. Specially we weren’t sure of our kids reaction to this lifestyle. What if they hated it? So packed up enough stuff to do in those months if they never wanted to travel again!
Once we arrived to Thailand we felt the need to slow down. We had 45 days to breath and relax. An eye-opening experience was the Project World School Family Summit which helped us see our new lifestyle in a whole different perspective. We were tired of running around. We were ready to slow down, stop planning every step, prolonging our stays as much as we liked simply because we were enjoying a place.
Check out our interview about the summit!
http://https://youtu.be/fL_xIRajtVE
This is how we spent our 45 days in Thailand! No plans, just possibilities and flexibility. What an amazing way of experiencing a country!
New changes on the way
As we were walking along Nai Yang Beach in Phuket, Mass and I realized that we had finally evolved from being “tourist travelers” to “world explorers”. We had started loosing interest for everything that is too touristy. At times we have also skipped some “must see” places. We started to accept that we cannot visit everything, who says we won’t be back? We started embracing the moments also if it was just sitting on a beach all day. We finally found our groove with world schooling. We now seek as many learning experiences possible for our kids but we stopped freaking out if for one day we just don’t do anything. The world is our school and you never know what is around the corner for you to learn!
What next?
After our travel to Thailand we were back in another planned part of trip. With our new realizations it was a lot more challenging. In fact in Bhutan and India we had private tours and we were always on the go. It was a beautiful experience but it felt like we were going back to our tourist mode, which didn’t fit in our style anymore. At the end of our time in India we really felt the need to slow down. Take our time and enjoy the country we were in even more.
Our time in Africa confirmed what we had been strongly feeling for some months. We do not want to stop. Our travels are not ready to end on June 30th 2019. We have so much more to experience and we want to do it together as a family. At this point we think Luca is on board too, all he wants to do is go on the plane!
What confirmed our change of heart
While we were in South Africa we had made a plan of what we wanted to see and do. However we only booked our first house and our last one, leaving the weeks in the middle open. We were going to book as we went along (pretty new attitude for us). As we arrived on the Garden route, that we had planned to drive slowly in 10 days, everything changed! We found a flyer for a paragliding school.
Mass was a paraglider for 12 years till we had kids, then everything went on hold. He was planning on getting his license back once we got back in July. Then I convinced him to call and ask info. Why wait when you have an opportunity right in front of your eyes? He chatted with Kobi at Cloude Base Paragliding and was ready to do it right away! Luckily we had not booked all our trip and were flexible to a new plan!
Never leave yourself behind
Taking this time and giving Mass the chance to fulfill his wish was really important for us as a family. When we have kids we tend to put our personal being on hold. Our kids come first, we tell ourselves. They need us 100%, we believe. So time goes by, they grow up and without even realizing it we lost touch with who we were. We get in this family bubble and we feel that if we aren’t always there for them, they might think we don’t care.
The truth is, that kids are much happier when their parents are happy with themselves. We are so much better as parents if now and then we also remember who we were before kids. Being a good parent doesn’t mean changing, it means including our family in who we are.
Watching Mass finally go back to his biggest passion, made my heart fly with him. The kids were excited and happy to see him do what he had talked about only in stories, so those stories were real after all!
What happens next?
We are going to finish our last months around the world as we had planned last year. However there have been some changes to the original idea.
We will go back to Arizona for about a month in July to organize a few things, give away some stuff that we kept in storage and of course catch up with family and friends. Then our travels will starts over. We will continue our nomad life. This time though things will be different.
We don’t feel the need to pre book flights for the months ahead. We will move based on the best deals and stay as long as the visas will let us or as long as we like it. We want to slow travel but not too slow ?! We want to have a chance to enjoy each country we visit more in-depth. We don’t want to rush through locations just so we can mark it off our bucket list! We want our kids to keep on feeling comfortable in this lifestyle and happy to be part of this whole big world.
Our new approach to our travels
Our new destinations will have a new goal. Of course the intention is always of seeing new countries. However we will also be in search of locations where Mass can continue flying. He will be collecting flights all around the world!
As for me I will continue taking pictures. Sharing our experiences through our blog and social media. I have been thrilled to learn of many people inspired by our travels or experiences. Some have booked a trip after seeing ours. Some have connected with people we talked about after reading our posts and being intrigued by what they do. Some have simply felt ready to travel more with their kids after seeing how good it is for us. This means that we are doing something right in getting the message out there!
So we hope you will continue following us! We have so much more to share and would love to hear from you too! Ask us questions or suggestions for possible new destinations. In fact although we have options on our list already we are very flexible!
Happy Travels!
P.s. Check out our most recent blog posts here to see what we have been up to!
