Andrew and I have known each other since elementary school. I thought he was cute back then but never would I have dreamed we would one day be married. We met while “selling” Toronto Star by going from house to house trying to convince people we were raising money for a computer for our school and if they purchased a subscription we would be that much closer to getting that computer. Needless to say that was a lie and there was no computer involved. But that wasn’t our fault, they made us do it! Anyway, I didn’t end up selling any subscriptions but I think Andrew as a little bit more successful. In hindsight I don’t think going from house to house alone was a good idea at the age of 12.
Throughout high school we remained friends but it wasn’t until our early 20’s when we started dating. It was then we discovered the travel bug. Our first trip together (besides camping in Northern Ontario) was a 2 month backpacking trip through Western Europe and some Eastern Europe. We had been together for a couple of years at that point and even though we had known each other for a long time we really didn’t know how well we would travel together. We started in Germany and continued to Belgium, Netherlands, France, Monaco, Italy, Poland and ended back in Germany. Those 2 months were the best 2 months of our lives and we discovered we were great travel buddies. Of course we had tough moments and we (read “I”) got home sick but discovered we could lean on each other and that at the end of the trip we didn’t want to kill the other person.
After the Europe trip we bought a house and moved in together, but still continued to travel. One year we visited our friends in England & Scotland, another year we went to Malaysia and still another year we went back to Poland as well as Ireland. Last year we visited Calgary and Banff in Canada. We figured it was time to see our own country.
Recently we got married and sold our house and determined this was the time to take the trip we have been dreaming about for years. 1 year in SE Asia, Australia & New Zealand. Our house was sold, we didn’t have anything tying us down, we were just young enough to obtain the work/travel visas for Australia (you can’t get them if you’re over 31 and Andrew would be turning 31 in September) so we knew it was now or never.
Needless to say we’re super excited, but nervous all at the same time. It’s definitely a big decision to put your life on hold for a year, not knowing what you’re going to come back to. We’re nervous and excited all at the same time (I’m nervous, Andrew is excited). We’re planning on using this year to reflect on what it is we want out of life and to figure out what we want our future to look like. Some people say we will come back with a changed perspective and some say we won’t come back at all. I don’t think we’re ready to speculate on any of those predictions, we just know we’re looking forward to a great year and embracing the unexpected lessons we will learn along the way.
We (read “I”) will try to keep this Blog updated as much as possible and as entertaining as possible. We will appreciate any (good) comments (keep the bad ones to yourselves) as we would like this to be as interactive as possible.
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