People often ask why we decided to take a trip like this. Honestly, there are a bunch of reasons, but we'll keep it to three.
Traveling as Personal Development
For those of you who know us, you are already aware that we travel frequently. We love traveling and meeting people from different cultures because it allows us to see ourselves as others see us. While we both enjoy working and living in the U.S., the more we travel, the more insight we get into our own lives and what we feel is really important in life. While we've learned a lot during our yearly two-week vacations, what better way to challenge our assumptions than spending a year abroad, surrounded by cultures foreign to our own. By experiencing so many different regions in a short time span, it will be enlightening to see not only the differences, but similarities between different cultures. Most importantly, we get to experience all of this together. No doubt this will have a positive, transformational impact on our lives and our marriage.
Living Abroad
It allows us to slow down and spend more time in places we like to fully absorb the local life. You can't travel for 52 weeks the same way you travel for two. That's why we're planning to spend two to four weeks at a few of our destinations to recoup, but also to experience life as a pseudo local. We're looking forward to sleeping in, shopping at the local market, catching a local show, and other domestic activities that are impossible to enjoy when you are limited to spending two days in each city.
Achieving a Life Goal
It's one of those goals that seems so far from reality, but once you change your mindset, question the doubts and risks, and dive into the research it becomes totally achievable. Our friends and family have been incredibly supportive and excited for us, which just reaffirms that for us, this is a risk worth taking. We are also fortunate enough that the timing finally worked out where we weren’t in college, graduate school, starting careers, changing jobs, planning a wedding or anything else. And after years of having this trip be just a pipe dream we're beyond excited that we are finally able to make it happen.
We're looking forward to what should be an amazing and unforgettable experience. A colleague of Brian's told him that we'll soon convert from "tourists to travelers." We're not quite sure what that means, but we're excited to find out.