This is my first official post on our Gap Year Adventure 2016!
It’s T minus 4 till we leave! Am I even remotely ready?
Nope!
Just like last time, when I made a packing list at T minus 5, I’ve been procrastinating. But my procrastination disease is way more advanced this time. I have not been prepping for weeks, except very lightly.
How have I been procrastinating? I only bought my airfare 6 weeks before flight and then was madly racing against time to book all Airbnb rooms 3-4 weeks ahead. All the good recommended Airbnbs and hotels were unavailable. It was totally stressful. We don’t have very clear itinerary planned and I’m tired of researching so am going to just wing it when we get there.
Oh well.
On the nights I can’t sleep, worrying about our itinerary, I imagined what our flight to Japan will be like. To save money, we’re doing a funky route of flying directly to Taipei (13hrs), then connecting to Tokyo (3.5hrs). Including waiting around, it will take 20 hours total!
In 2013, I’d been very unhappy with work and trying to juggle that with doing Montessori training and over-volunteering at preschool. It came to a head where I got herniated discs from sitting in a chair too long every day. When we flew to Taiwan, I had to take some prescription drugs before my flight to ease my herniated discs symptoms. My symptoms got worse when I had to carry a huge suitcase, 1 carryon, car seat, and Astroboy once we got off the plane.
Even with minimal carrying of Astroboy in other times, it got bad enough one day I couldn’t get out of bed. Every turn was a shot of pain. But I had to get up, shuffle slowly while holding onto Thumper, in an out of taxi, to go to a department store to get winter jacket for the kids.
It was crazy times.
I think about where I am three years later. Homeschooling has forced me to move around and keep the symptoms of herniated discs at bay. It’s rewarding and fun and challenging to teach the children. I’ve found a group of like-minded parents who are as obsessed with raising bilingual children as me. We finally moved after 3 years of waffling and I LOVE the warmer temperature and ability to walk everywhere.
Everything is coming together.
In training, I learned a psychology term called F.L.O.W. FLOW, according to Wikipedia, is
also known as the zone, is the mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. In essence, flow is characterized by complete absorption in what one does.
Montessori says, the children get into F.L.O.W., when we observe the child, set up a proper environment, let them make their own choices with limits, and just step back and leave them be. She didn’t coin the term FLOW, she says they are in a zone when they do concentrated, repeated work. But she was ahead of her times.
I’m hacking the term a bit. But I feel like my life is in FLOW right now. When I allowed myself to pursue the things I feel passionate about or feel I need, and disregard the super logical side of me which worries about money (how can we afford life if I quit my job and how can I afford to world travel?), or the voices of other people who say nay, life seems to just come together and everything is working seamlessly with each other.
Yes, there are still obstacles and daily struggles and frustrations, but, I’m at a really good place in life right now. It’s like rearranging the fengshui in my personal life so that I can say, at the end of the day, that I’ve had a fulfilling day today.
When I homeschool, I think about this idea of following pursuits that result in FLOW. Because to allow the kids to have FLOW means that I need to be observant to what it is they need and allowing them to pursue what fulfills their soul, not always dictating what I think they need. It’s a delicate balance and one I hope I get better and better at.
I think I got side tracked. I was talking about our imminent trip. All this to day, we’re getting ready to pursue a dream I’ve had for several years, to travel around the world for a year! The plans changed a bit so we’ll only be doing 3 countries this time. But I’m super excited!
