The Decision

 
 

My wife and I have talked about doing this for the last 13 years - each conversation was always in the context of sometime in the future, usually we imagined our oldest being in high school and our youngest about to enter high school.  

 
 

In January of this year I was talking to a mother with high school age children and she was describing how involved her children were in activities both during the school year and summer break and how devastating it could be academically, and socially, to miss any significant period of time. 


 

This conversation reinforced some similar fears I was having, as my eldest has entered her teenage years the realization that she could easily decide that the trip is not of interest to her and should we make her undertake it she has demonstrated the ability to make life uncomfortable for those around her. This ability could easily make a trip unbearable if she had to leave her friends or activities for too long. Even now I have some concerns although she seems very excited. 


 

This lead to some conversations and we decided if we are going to undertake this adventure had better be before high school which leaves only this year – fortunately we believe that our youngest is mature enough to handle this trip.  Although this year had brought a number of changes – I have joined a small startups executive team I realize that there will always be an excuse not to undertake such an adventure – actually, looking back, the hardest part of this trip so far was been making up my mind to actually do it. That was very difficult – frightening – and I actually started sharing the decision with family and friends as soon as I made it – to make it harder for me to change my mind.


 


 

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