She asked me if I was scared about leaving everything behind and moving to an island in the middle of the Pacific. I laughed and said I wasn’t. But somehow that question has become a little louder the last few weeks and got me thinking.
I would formally like to change my answer to; Yes, it’s scary.
We are selling our house, and giving away everything we have collected over the last ten years, we are moving to a tiny little island in the middle of the Pacific, a place only I have been to. Wait no, the island we decided to go to I actually have never stepped foot on. My husband and our two kids have NEVER been to any of the islands in Hawaii. We are completely winging it. We close on our house in under 20 days. We don’t have our flight tickets yet. Don’t have a rental or home lined up yet. We are going with only our suitcase, and that’s it. We are leaving behind something we know so well to something new. We are diving into this blindly, and it’s scary as hell.
So why are we doing this? What part about it makes it worth it and overpowers the scary side of it for me?
I have this vision in my head. My kids living a carefree life, where they can watch the sunset, and play in nature without living in a world that’s so built around materialistic things. I want them to create art, dream big, care about the world and the people around them. I want to instill in them the importance of focusing on family, and always putting that first because, in the end, that’s who will be by your side.
Living in Hawaii is expensive, and I want my kids to understand that there’s a short list of ‘must haves’ when it comes to the live we live. Life is not about the things we have; it’s about who we are and who we will become.
You don’t need to have a big house to be happy.
You have to love the people in whatever home you live in.
You don’t have to have the newest car. What matters most is the songs you sing in the car you drive.
You don’t need to have a phone or tv to keep you from being bored. There’s a whole world for you to explore.
Now all these things and more are things we try and instill in our two kids, and can do this from anywhere, even living in Florida.
When I visited Hawaii, those values were everywhere, and I loved that about being there. It reminded me of my own childhood growing up in Germany and made me want that for my own family.
This might be scary at the moment, but I know in my heart that when we get there and are settled, I’ll have moments that remind me of why this was the best decision for my family and me.
