ONE YEAR

Final count: 57 books, 33 countries, 5 continents, 4 haircuts, 1 bra from a road cart and at least a dozen pair of undies, varying sizes.

Our first flight was delayed by 27 hours. We didn't tell anybody, that first night, that we were actually in Oakland, California, not London, England. I felt sad, as I was ready for the adventure to begin. Jason, felt some relief, unbenownst to me, as we walked into the airport he was feeling anxious, overwhelmed and questioned the sanity of this adventure. Seeing the note posted at the airline counter, that the flight was delayed, offered some relief. Spending the night in an Oakland hotel allowed him to relax, talk about what had happened at the airport and together we faced this fear and got stoked.

For about a year leading up to this trip we talked about how this trip could either make us or break us as a couple. Traveling is hard work and finding a parter with whom you can travel with is not an easy task. Jason can't stand being in the car for more than an hour. We gripe. We complain, we blame one another. We sometimes throw temper tantrums that would make your toddler jealous. But at the end of the day we support one another, we take responsibility, albeit so freaking difficult sometimes, for our actions and we say I'm sorry. We don't always have the best communication, things get lost in reactive translation, but we never go to bed angry.

As you can see, this trip made us. It wasn't always pretty. Travel days that included airports were incredibly stressful and increased our anxiety and reactivity to one another. I look back and chuckle because a number of times we were that couple that I have seen in public and thought to myself, hmmm, they should probably just break up. We learned quickly that only one of us could be anxious at a time, otherwise it's absolutely futile. Generally, at some point of each day we'd talk about how we were feeling, how the experiences of the day were affecting us, and if we'd struggled that day, we'd talk about how we could do things differently, better the next time.

We took turns researching the things we'd like to see, do, eat and drink in the cities we were headed to. I would write in a journal our wishlist for each city or town, putting everything on it, including where to get the best native dish. Food, to us, is one of the best ways to experience a new culture. We love finding little hole in the wall places, where we are some of the only tourists eating, and we absolutely love street food carts. One of my favorite thing to do when arriving someplace new, is checking out their grocery store. I love wandering the isles looking at the new varieties of food.

For lodging we most often used Air B&B and Hotels.com. We used these so often that we got discounts, money back, and "secret" deals. We never booked a place further than 3 or 4 days out, just in case we wanted to stay longer, or go explore some other place near by. Having to be somewhere at a certain date actual caused us more stress. We are more like gypsies in our travel style and prefer to go with the flow rather than stick to an agenda.

We covered a lot of ground on this trip. We spent a lot of time on airplanes. We would have saved a lot of money if we'd stayed in places longer, but that was not the goal of this trip. We wanted to see as much as possible in these twelve months. What became very clear, very early on, is that this trip was just a sampler platter of what is out there. We could spend the next decade of our lives traveling and still have a list of places we'd want to go. When we do this again we will pick twelve places, staying in each one for about a month. Soaking in the culture, learning a bit of the language, becoming part of the community. But, let me make it clear, we have absolutely no regrets from this trip.

Writing this blog took a lot more time and effort than I originally thought. I figured a couple hours a week and I'd be able to pump something out. What I found was that it felt like I was writing in my journal, but then remembered that other people would be reading it, so the editing became important to me, which takes time. I didn't always want to put in the effort. I didn't always want to sit for hours on end writing, but I'd make myself an instant coffee, or pour myself a glass of wine. I'd reward myself for getting 'er done. I'm so happy that I made that effort, because I tend to forget things and this will be a constant companion.

About ten months into the trip I was starting to feel like setting roots. I was feeling like I wanted a home, a place to call my own, my own pillow, mattress, dishwasher, laundry machine. But I shook it off. I had set out on a twelve month adventure and refused to fall short of that goal. Month eleven came around and I was feeling bored. I was feeling tired of being on the move. It felt like things were becoming redundant and I wasn't as excited as I normally am for exploring. I was, however, always down for a hike, but hiking wasn't always available to us. I was feeling homesick and wanting, needing, time with my girlfriends. I voiced this to Jason, who never wanted the trip to end, and reality set in that the international portion of our trip must end at the twelve month mark.

Taking three months to acclimate to American life, while seeing this beautiful country, was exactly what we needed. It gave us much needed time to voice our goals, dreams and plan for what's next. Having a vehicle decreased our stress and anxiety levels immensely. It allowed us to travel at our own pace, turn down whatever roads we wanted, stop whenever we felt like it and nap in some incredible places.

If I had to do it all again I would pack less. My backpack would fit in the overhead bin and I would buy what I needed along the way. Not only would this save time and money, it would just make it simpler to live out of a bag. Of the original items I left home with, I returned with:

Locals flip flops (discarded in the US)

Teva sandals, that smell awful

Yoga pant (I'm wearing them as I type this)

Yoga mat

Toiletry bag

Scarf

1 long sleeve shirt (donated in the US)

1 sportsbra (donated in the US)

1 tanktop

1 pair running shorts

1 skirt

1 t-shirt (donated in the US)

My toiletry bag

Most of this stuff is in my carry-on

Five months later, I tend to forget that what we did is kind of a big deal. People go through their entire lives dreaming, yet never making a single step toward accomplishing that dream, or goal. That's okay, research does show the positive effects of the act of dreaming and goal setting in and of itself, but I think fear holds us back. We tend to stand in our own way. We listen to the negative mind chatter that tells us we aren't good enough, smart enough, rich enough, daring enough...we can't. We can't. We must remember to put our energy into what serves us, negative mind chatter simply does not, so let it go and instead replace the negative with positive. Dream big, huge, gargantuan and don't ever stop. Share your dream with whomever will listen and understand that there will be plenty of naysayers, but remember their response is about them, their fear. Find what fills your heart with joy, get out of your own way, and do it!