Embracing Change…

In concluding my posts about traveling without children, I want to expand on this idea just a bit. Recognizing that this was coming, Terry and I have been talking at length about this transition and how we will manage it for some time now. In thinking about and preparing for our youngest child heading off to college and living away from home this fall, we have decided to sell our family home shortly after she takes this step. Our plan is to have it sold by the end of the year.

Terry and Ryan relaxing on the porch of our new home in New Mexico

While our city was a wonderful place to raise our children, quiet, safe and near extended family, we prefer to live in a locale that offers more to us in terms of activities and surroundings that are more stimulating to us. That is why, last year, we purchased a small home in a city in northern New Mexico that we have been visiting for more than ten years.

Our little camper

After our house sells, my husband will be retiring so he can invest his time tinkering with our camper and our home and enjoying the sports he loves to pursue. I, on the other hand, will be investigating some of Patti’s great suggestions from her posts about making money from your RV, doing more writing and hopefully some teaching, something I have been doing part time for awhile now. While we will not be on the road full time, without a full time work schedule to attend to, we do intend to camp and travel a great deal more than our working, child-rearing lives allowed. We have made an extensive list of places we have traveled through or visited briefly that we have a burning desire to return to for a more extended visit.

So we have made a start. This year is destined to be one of great change for our family, as well as for us, as a couple. In fact, depending on our schedule for getting our children delivered to their various colleges, we may be unable to take our regular trip in mid summer as usual. But we plan to have the flexibility to schedule it when we can work it in.

We strongly believe some good things will come of this change. However, we are not fully there, yet and are still a bit tentative and fragile in our commitment. But we will get there. And I will be sharing parts of this journey with you as the year continues.

I also know there are likely others out there who are either facing this situation, as we are, or will be soon. Therefore, if any of you reading this have any words of advice or wisdom, ideas that have worked for you when your children grew up and were no longer a part of your RV or camping experience, we would love to hear them.

As a therapist, one thing I suggest to clients experiencing a life change is to seek support from others in and for their change. So I am taking my own advice and asking for your advice and support. We will welcome your ideas and suggestions as an expression of emotional encouragement and collaboration on our journey. I anticipate others would love to hear your successes as well. Please share them with us so that others may benefit from your experience.