I was eventually going to write this anyway, but at the prodding of a friend it now ends up at the top of my blog list. This will not be an easy thing to write about.

Change was an integral part of my life for the first 20 plus years. Counting this boat, I’ve called around 40 different places home during my 43 years on the planet. Yeah, that’s counting places like dorm rooms and apartments, but how many of you can say as much?

Growing up with Nomadic parents, you come to accept change. But it wasn’t always easy. I’ll not soon forget riding the school bus home listening to the Eagle’s “New Kid in Town” song after standing back to back (to protect each other) with Sam during recess at Lincoln Grade School in Spencer, Iowa. (can you believe someone wanted to kick our asses?) BTW, if that PE teacher who gave me a C- is reading this, go fuck yourself. A C- in PE? Really?

Anyway, as a kid, I traveled a ton. We drove everywhere: if it wasn’t to find a new house it was taking a family vacation somewhere. (those of you who NEVER take your kids on roadtrips are, in my opinion, missing out on one of the great benefits of having paid time off) I’m not sure what my mom’s excuse was, but my dad had one of the greatest cases of Wanderlust the world has ever seen. So everyone piled in the family truckster and away we went. (actually, it wasn’t a truckster…it was a cargo van with an old loveseat in the back)

Dad’s Wanderlust carried on into his 50s…perhaps culminated by an epic trip to San Diego…where he drove straight through from Madison, SD to San Diego, picked something up, and drove straight back, not even taking the time to stop and visit his sister who lived there. I’ll never forget the look on my Mom’s face when he pulled into the driveway 60 hours later…she was devastated that she wasn’t going to be incharge of the remote for one more night. I’ll also never forget driving back from a family reunion with my dad (when he was 72) as he explained to me that something in him had changed and he no longer wanted to be away from his home, bed, and pets.

Somewhere along the line things changed for me…Nancy and I got married and actually purchased a house. Life started becoming more uniform. Work M-F until 5. Grab groceries on the way home. Eat. Grab a beer at Monk’s or the wine bar. Chill with friends. Vacation in the mountains with our backpacks and dog. The change that I’d been accustomed to was disappearing. In the words of Pink Floyd, was I becoming Comfortably Numb?

A routine is an easy thing to get into. It’s comfortable. It’s probably inevitable. But Nan and I weren’t really ready for a melancholy death in middle America, not yet anyway. So we began talking about ways to change things up a bit and the boat sounded like a reasonable way to try something new, something different. If it wasn’t reasonable, it was at least a lifestyle we could afford for a while.

So, we’ve been aboard the boat for about 6 months now. Has our new life provided the change in our lives that we were looking for? I guess that the answer is ’sort of’. Oddly, we find ourselves returning to the same restaurants or palapas that we’ve already visited so we can talk to the same waiter we’ve already met. We have found comfort in familiar surroundings in Mexico just as we did in Sioux Falls. We have missed our families and friends terribly, in this there is no doubt.

This life had provided us with many excellent opportunities. We have the opportunity every single day to go someplace new and see something different. And yet we don’t always do it…too often we find ourselves walking back to the same old place…and why is that? Personal relationships. We need relationships in our lives as surely as we need oxygen, food, and Belgian beers. Because everyone we know is somewhere else, we supplement this need by getting to know as many local people as possible. But it’s just not the same.

We COULD see something new and amazing every single day, but the vistas aren’t the same because our peeps aren’t here with us to share them. If only we could find some way to take everyone with us…then we’d no doubt find our Shangri La.

So…has the change been a good thing for me? That’s an easy one. A definite yes. It’s made me realize a bunch of things. The world is good in spite of what the news says. The world is beautiful, from the ocean at night to the interesting life of a coral reef to the mountains and desert. They are all amazing. (I tried really hard to include the cornfields of the midwest but I just couldn’t) And most importantly, it’s made me realize how important my friends and family are to me. Too often I fear I took those relationships for granted…or at least didn’t value them as much as I could have. It’s not the same to talk to someone on Skype as it is to talk around a campfire or at Christmas.

No life is perfect. So make the most of the one you’ve got.

Jeff