In 24 hours we’ll be on the plane to Manila (barring any delays), heading off to travel the world on a gap year (350 days so close enough!).  I’m not sure how we should be feeling, but I wasn’t expecting to feel like this. 

Over the last few months I’ve been through everything it seems from babbling excitement (apologies to all friends and family!), then serious stress around the house move and upon realising we had less than two weeks to go and I hadn’t bought everything yet.  (This would have been less stressful if we didn’t have a camping weekend and a big family wedding still to fit in and no internet where we were staying…).  I’ve not yet been scared or worried about it as the whole things is planned.   I know where we’re going, where we’re sleeping and how we get there.  Luckily for us we’re not really worriers. 

This week I’ve been pretty apathetic about the whole thing, neither worried or excited.  It’s like I’ve used it all up.  And then tonight after saying good bye to some of the family for a year that little fear demon has started to sneak in and jump about in my chest as the reality of what we’re doing tomorrow has hit me.  I mean this is it – we are getting on a plane tomorrow with very little things and we won’t be back in our nice safe routines with friends and family for a whole year.  What if we hate it?  Or something goes wrong?  I figure these last minute nerves are pretty normal though right?  

So what am I scared of?  And why is it that pretty much everyone I’ve told about our trip has said that it sounds amazing but that they couldn’t do it, or that we’re very brave?  Many people have said that just thinking about us doing it makes them anxious.  What are you all scared of too?

I guess for many it’s such a change from the norm that we don’t know where to start.  When we first started thinking about doing this we had so many questions; could we afford it?  What would the kids think?  Can we home school them? What happens to their school place when we come back? What about our house?  Can we rent it?  Should we sell up? Where do we go?  How much will it cost?  Where will we stay each night? Do I really want to share a room with some other sweaty teenage backpackers?  It’s pretty overwhelming when you think about planning this sort of trip as a whole.  We broke it down into individual questions and attacked them individually to make it more manageable.  

Job security is also a worry as we’re all trying to keep the bills paid. 

It’s also a massive detour from what’s expected of us.  Maybe you, like us,  just haven’t thought about it as a possibility.  We get so caught up in the day to day life of work, school, weekends that it hadn’t occurred to us to think about whether there was another way.  So many people have asked me what the school said and whether the council would let us when we said we were taking them out of school.  It’s actually not the school’s choice, it’s up to us as parents to decide what the best way to educate our kids is and whether we use the school system or do our own thing.  

Perhaps it’s the unknown.  At home we know what to expect from each day, we have our work and school routines, but without them what happens each day on the road?  

Maybe it’s the thought of spending 350 days as a family in pretty tight spaces!  Most of us have at least one parent working full time, the kids are in school and then the weekends are filled with clubs and parties so we spend only a few hours a day together.  The thought of months together may fill some of you with dread.  Luckily for us we both work from home so are used to spending most of our time together so we’re excited by the prospect of a year together 

Let me know in the comments below what would stop you from going on a family gap year?

I think for me the nerves were really about whether this was the right decision for our family and whether we’re making a mistake.  Ultimately I’ve planned the trip so there’s a fair amount of pressure on me for it to be good!  And whilst I love the outdoors and exploring I can also be a bit of a wet blanket when it comes to heat, and cold and general weather extremes.  So am I really going to enjoy all these other countries?  Also, my health is often not great so there’s always a worry that that’ll cause some issues along the way.    

Handing over to Chris…

Clearly, there was a lot to think about however luckily for me, Sarah is a dab hand at researching and planning things (understatement of the year!), and therefore since we decided to press on with these plans nearly 10 months ago, we have found a tenant to lease our house for 12 months, we have notified the school that our children will not be returning after the summer holidays, and she has meticulously reviewed each and every country that we are hoping to visit so we have a good idea of what we will find, and roughly what it might cost so that we could go with at least some confidence that we are well prepared and financed for the journey. 

So I’m not worried at all! Eeek!