Have you ever been really prepared for something, working every day towards it, running head long at it only to hit a brick wall and everything changes?
Yeah well, that’s what “paws” felt like to us. The day we got the call from one of the kid’s schools was the same day we had the appointment with a real estate agent to talk about renting the house. The day after was the chat with the boss’ boss’ boss about the gap year (yeah it was that controversial – here’s a tip for beginners: don’t start a new job three months before you are planning to go 🙄🙄) and potentially looking at me resigning. (which I was prepared to do if that’s what would work for the kids)
It was such a shock and a big change in our plans; it took a while to readjust. Pros and cons obviously – I mean there’s never a good time to take a 12 month gap from life but we’d built so much around it, so much momentum, that it was hard to change direction.
My boss was quite happy though: he said something like “That’s the best news I’ve heard all week” (it was Thursday morning – not Monday) and then quickly followed by “I’m sorry about that”. 😀
Luckily for us, we have the flexibility (i.e. cash) to be able to rearrange all the flights so that we can still get away in January to India for the wedding and my yoga teacher’s classes and get back a few days before the kids start the new high schools. If we had had to cancel everything (which still would have cost us $$) we would have been devastated so I am very glad we were able to keep some of the trip! And really with Harbin in there we are doing some of the most annoying parts: visa wise & distance & extreme cold too).
I must say though, about mid-December it dawned on me how bad timing it is to go away in December for a month with a change of schools but as they say “c’est la vie”.
Add to that, I heard today about a not so close friend whose partner is in hospital with serious medical issues. They are only a couple of years older than us and it is a stark reminder how life can change in an instant. There’s no time to waste – waiting until the kids are older, until you retire, until you win the lotto – you might be dead by then (or worse and trust me there’s definitely worse – right Lou?).
Carpe diem!