With the inevitable contemplation and reflection that accompanies the end of a year, and the start of another one, I received a welcome sense of clarity this morning as to something that has been brewing beneath the surface for quite some time.
Both SO and I are the adventurous types. We were both independently of each other travellers/backpackers straight out of high school, spending many months abroad during the time between high school and university. During our studies, and in the 5 years since then, the trips we have taken have been of the same sort.
We both feel incredibly lucky to have found each other, and often marvel at how well our values and priorities align. After 8+ years together, we both still feel the same level gratitude for this. Working towards FIRE was something that was just already within us, long before we discovered it was a thing, and projecting a FIRE life onto our already adventure thirsty vision of the future aligned perfectly.
As any FIRE person will testify, planning for the future comes quite naturally, and often not only for the financial side of life. The same went for how we envisioned working life leading up to us having children would play out. There were some trips that we felt we needed to do before we had children, and when looking at that list again, some things that we had anticipated we would have already done.
A brief list (among many others):
- Visit Tanzania and hike Kilimanjaro
- Asia / SE Asia: China, Tibet, Indonesia, Malaysia (Borneo), Vietnam, South Korea, Japan
- South America: Chile, Argentina, Peru, Bolivia, Colombia
- North America: National Parks in both USA & Canada
- Himalaya Trip: Bhutan, multi-week trek in Nepal
- Road Trip New Zealand
Some of these don't necessarily lend themselves well to do with young children, which I think can be a contributing factor to the sense of stress and urgency that I feel. At the same time, I also don't want to delay having children for too long either. I'm 32 and SO is 31, an age just beyond when our respective parents had us. My father opened my eyes to the wonder of mountains, and my mother to the beauty of eastern culture, and they have instilled a sense of adventure in me that I greatly appreciate, and I thoroughly enjoy traveling with them. I hope to instill the same sense of adventure in my children, and be able to do the same types of things that I still to this day do together with my parents. Examples, among many, are ambitious day hikes of 25km+ and 1500m+ elevation, not bad for two people in their sixties.
I think what I am trying to reason myself towards is that I need to alter my expectation of these different trips, and understand that they can still be done with children, just in a different way. I anticipate lots of travel also with our children, considering for example the years leading up to when they start school, or being able to make the most of the various school breaks they will have, such as the 2 month+ summers or the long winter breaks.
I'm not sure I have a question here, just trying to piece together various tangent and divergent thoughts. Hope to hear your reflections!