Thursday, October 30, 2008

Where you wander, I will go

As I look around at all the businesses closing, people freaking out and the general malaise of the country these days as well as personal experiences, particularly my husband's father's death, I've been thinking more about what I want for the rest of my life. There is this belief in this country that we work ourselves to the bone until we reach 65 or 70 and then we travel, enjoy ourselves etc. We do all the things we've always meant to do, but put off due to work, family etc. I can't get behind that. My father in law worked his ass off for many years and never got to enjoy the fruits of his labor. Never wanted to close his practice and lose the income coming through the door. He died at 59, 4-5 years from his planned retirement. So, basically, he worked for this future life of leisure he never got to experience. I can't see living my life that way. Life is way too short for that. I want to travel the world, experience new things, maybe even live overseas for a while and I want to be young enough and healthy enough to enjoy it. I was reading an article that stated that experiences make people happier than things. I agree. But I also love to buy what I want to buy when I want to buy it. I want to get to the point where we downsize our house and have more freedom, find a new way to live. There are so many things I want to experience that I need all the time I can get to complete them. I am only 35 years old and have so many regrets of things I didn't do or say or places I didn't go because I was too scared, too unsure of myself. I don't want to look back and say that I just let life push me through wherever it wanted to take me. I want to look back at all these travels and experiences and feel content in a life well lived. Now, I just have to come up with a plan to accomplish it all...