Mid-Point Reflections from Juliette
Two months in the books, two months to go! We’ve seen a lot. We’ve done a lot. We’ve walked A LOT! We’ve changed a lot. So we wanted to take a moment to reflect on our time so far before we dive into the adventures awaiting us in Spain, Morocco, Iceland, Scandinavia, and Switzerland.
As you can imagine, there have been twists, turns, ups, downs, and complete 180s so far. We feel blessed that there have been more ups than downs, and most twists and turns have led to better experiences than we had originally planned. If you’ve been keeping up with our posts, you’ve read about a lot of the stories — and we have plenty more to share in person.
For now, though, I want to share three important lessons I’ve learned over these last two months, since I had a bit during our pit stop in Austin to process it all. Here’s what I’m taking away from our time in Greece, Italy, the U.K., and Ireland:
The world is, in general, a good place. As hesitant as I am to admit it, before this trip, I was afraid of the world. I bought in to the scary, disastrous, messy picture that gets painted all over the news. When all we see and hear about is the horrible stuff, it’s hard not to be afraid. It took awhile for me to feel comfortable so far from home and so far outside my comfort zone. But, now, I can easily say that I see the world as fascinating and beautiful, and the people around me as good and kind. There are still things that scare me, and we’ve obviously met people that aren’t kind, but my outlook as a whole has definitely changed. Not only is that a good thing for the rest of our trip, but it’s a good thing for all other areas of my life.
Moving around every few days suits us. This was quite a surprising realization. I tend to be more of a homebody, and Gabriel prefers to be outside, moving around and being social. So, we knew he would adjust well to the busy schedule…we weren’t so sure about me. During this trip, we’ve spent approx. 1-3 days in most cities, with occasional 5-day stays in bigger cities (like Florence and Edinburgh). So, it’s been a lot of quick turnarounds and lots of moving around. And, yes, we’ve both loved it! We feel like it’s the perfect amount of time to see what we want without having time to get too attached. We even felt ourselves getting restless during our four days in Austin — though, it was really great to be home and see all the people we love. It’ll be a challenge to keep that desire at bay when we’re back for good in December. For now, we’ll keep riding the high and loving every minute of it!
Even the greatest adventure requires an intentional, positive attitude. It was easy for me to assume that, just because we were going to be free from the stress of work and seeing incredible places, every day would be sunshine and rainbows. Well, that fantasy quickly dissolved as new stressors came up: the reality of living out of backpack, dealing with lots of new people’s obnoxious behaviors in public (I’m looking at you, loud gum chewers and line cutters), being around the same person 24/7 (love you, babe!), not knowing what to expect in every new city. I am well aware that those stressors are nothing compared with what other people are going through right now, but they were our reality for these two months and did wear on us. Thankfully, this reality check has taught me I am in complete control of how I process outside influences and was the reminder I needed to live life intentionally, trying to find beauty and goodness wherever I am. The grandest adventure can easily be wasted by a bad attitude. So I wake up every day with a simple intention: choose joy.
Alright, that’s all I’ve got for now! I am excited to see how these thoughts evolve in these next two months, and to have some new thoughts on the trip as a whole in December.
Cheers to personal growth and happiness, friends! 🙂
Big hugs,
Juliette