Until I can figure out how to set up a different username for Ben, he'll be posting as a guest :-) I asked him to be a regular contributor to our adventure blog! Here's his first post. I contemplated calling it "The Porkchop Perspective" ... and for those of you who know me best, you know why! :-)
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Over the recent holidays, I saw many family members and
friends who asked me, “What made you decide to go to South America for a
year???” My answer to this question varied a little, and I also answered in a
briefer way than I would have liked to. This post is my expanded explanation to
you, the reader, and my own personal musings on why Caitlin and I decided to
plan a twelve-month trip to Ecuador!
Before I get into the reasons, I want to talk about why this
question is even a question to begin with. If Caitlin and I announced this year
that she was pregnant, no one would have asked us “Well, why would you go and
do that?” I mean, we’re going to Ecuador for 365 days. Having a kid is a lifetime longer than that, but we’ve
gotten some weird looks and confusion as to why we’d want to spend just a
single year of our lives someplace other than our two-bedroom house in Orlando.
Similarly, if my company promoted me and had to send me across the United
States, or even to another country so I could do this bigger job with more
responsibility and more pay, I don’t expect people would have asked, “Well, why
would you go and do that?” That question wouldn’t come up because those are big
events many people experience in their lives (or hope to experience) and they
understand and can relate to the decision making behind starting a family or
taking a promotion where you leave home. Deciding to travel long term in
foreign countries is not, however, something people normally do, especially
people at our age and life stage, so it takes some explanation to help others
see where we are coming from.
And that’s why I’m writing this! So, let’s get into the reasons
we are choosing to travel.
The first reason we’re traveling is because it’s a great way
to get you out of your comfort zone. Living in another country where the
language spoken is not your own, and where the culture is very different from
yours, is a surefire way to force you out of your typical routine and social
activities. Pretty much everything that has made you a better person in life so
far has been something in which you needed to get out of your comfort zone.
Think of learning to ride a bike, leaving for college, public speaking, or having
the guts to ask your boss for that promotion you’ve had your eye on. Doing these
things for the first time is always scary, and requires you to take some action
that you’re not used to. But once you commit and follow through, you become
that person who rode the bike, went to college, spoke in public, or got that promotion!
What were you so afraid of?
This trip we are about to take falls into the same category.
It is a little scary and exciting at the same time. Up to now, I have never had
to purchase groceries using Spanish, or felt the inclination to dance to Latin
music, but I am gonna do both of those things, and I bet it won’t be boring.
The next reason for going would be that the best way to
learn a new language is to live in a country where people speak it. I wish I
had taken advantage of the semesters in high school and college that I learned
Spanish, but unfortunately I didn’t, and forgot pretty much all of it. Now is
my chance to undo that. I don’t think I need to argue how valuable knowing
Spanish is today. It is even more widely spoken than English. Knowing Spanish will
help me appreciate a different culture, make friends I otherwise wouldn’t,
sharpen my mind, and perhaps even open up some business opportunities. If you
already speak more than just English, you know exactly what I’m talking about.
Reason number three may be unexpected. It has to do with
being a more interesting person. Many of the people that I look up to and try
to learn from are all really interesting people. Tim Ferriss, Dane Maxwell, and
Richard Branson are a few that come to mind. They are people who are not just
wealthy, but people who are really interesting, too. I plan to be wealthy in my
future, and I plan to have wealthy, interesting friends. Tai Lopez, when asked
why millionaire investors would consider talking to him about business,
responded by saying, “If you want to have wealthy friends, you have to earn
their interest.” Give a millionaire a reason to talk with you and you may have
a chance to make a friend. In other words – stand out from the pack.
Now, don’t get me wrong here. I don’t believe that by taking
some long trip I will automatically have powerful friends, or that you need to take a long trip to gain them. What
I am saying is that living out your own dreams already gets you closer to
meeting and knowing people who inspire you—and becoming a person that inspires.
Lastly—and this one is my favorite—the best reason for
taking an extended trip is to fulfill a deep human desire to explore and see
the unknown. I call it “human” because I know that everyone feels it at some
point in life. The desire to see what we haven’t seen beckons us. Without this
desire, we would have never made it to the moon or discovered underwater caves
(and those endeavors are way more
risky than what we are doing). So this trip is not just the fulfillment of that
desire, but the refusal to stifle or ignore it.
Now, while Ecuador is our first big trip, it won’t be our
last! There will be other adventures, but living somewhere for twelve months won’t
happen too often. I think the desire to explore can be partially satisfied with
shorter vacations. Caitlin and I love our little vacations and cruises, but
those trips only give us glimpses of other countries and are more
entertainment-focused. We don’t have the chance to make new friends, learn a
new language, learn to cook new foods and so on. Staying long-term forces us to
slow down and experience the culture,
rather than merely see it.
There are a hundred and one reasons not to commit to long-term travel, and there is never a perfect
time to do it, either. For me, the pull of exploration and excitement is
stronger than any reason to stay home. Most people would think it was more
sensible to do this sort of thing right after college or once you retire. I can
understand that perspective, and until recently, thought the same thing. Since
Caitlin and I are not pursuing typical careers, though, we have nothing tying us
to one spot. The mindset of “I’ll just do all the things I have always wanted
to do once I retire,” is actually filled with more risk than one might
think—it’s what most of us do, so it seems
safe. But who says we’ll even make it
to retirement? Sure, there’s risks traveling abroad at length for such a long
time, but isn’t waiting 30-40 years
to start on our bucket list a risk, too? Plus, let’s face it, there’d be much
more risk if we waited to go live in Ecuador if we were in our 70’s instead of
our 20’s or 30’s. So I guess we just have to choose which risk we want to take…and we’re choosing a different
risk than most, which can appear to some people as if we’ve gone off the deep
end!
So there you have it.
Those are the things that, for me, answer the question “Why are you doing
this?” We leave on July 15, 2015 and are pumped about this new chapter of our
lives!! If you have a question, or some other great reasons for long-term
travel that I didn’t mention, I would be delighted if you shared them in the
comments!
Hasta Luego!
Ben
