Taking a Year Off To Travel With Your Family

I started following a blogger, Miss Britt, when I heard she sold her house, and nearly all of her and her families’ belongings in order to embark on a year-long camping adventure. She is taking her family across the country, a few weeks at a time, for an entire year. She’ll support her husband and two children solely on her freelance income.

This is something people only talk about doing, but usually don’t end up making it happen. Miss Britt is showing people they CAN do anything if it is what they really want.

I know many people want go on great vacations, live in other states, or to simply stay at home with the kids. I too, say, “but I can’t afford to do it.” The reality is that I really could, IF that’s what I really wanted.

We’d cut cable, drive a beater, live in a small house instead of upgrading to a larger one, take less, or no, vacations. We’d make it work.

Miss Britt is making the sacrifices necessary in order to make this dream come true for her family. She’s doing it.

Before I heard of Miss Britt’s adventure, I had just finished the book, “Pins on a Map: A Family’s Yearlong Journey Around the World,” by David Boesch that had been sent to me.  It too tells a tale of a family embarking in a year-long travel adventure. This family, the father a doctor, traveled the world. Before their journey began, each family member got to put push pins on a map to help them decide where to travel in their year.

These families will have memories together for their entire lives because of these experiences. The “Pins on a Map” family, experiences so much in just 12 months. They get to see different cultures, eat different types of food and speak different languages.  This father was able to take a leave of absence from work, but didn’t have a guarantee of a job upon return. (He did get to return after his year was over.)

Two great stories, two very different families.

What I love about Miss Britt is that she’s showing that you don’t have to live on a doctor’s salary to do something big. You just have to have desire in your heart and will in your blood.

Taking your family on a year-long travel adventure isn’t for everyone, but I think it can all give us pause to think about what is it that we really want to do. What do we want to experience while our kids are at home with us? Let’s not let money, time or other excuses get in the way.

Related:

• Miss Britt’s camping trip information
  
• Pins on a Map: A Family’s Yearlong Journey Around the World,” by David Boesch