Saylorville Lake Partly Cloudy 75 Degrees
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how our new lifestyle has impacted the person that I am. At 52 years old, I am going through “The Change”. But, I am also undergoing another change, one without hot flashes, night sweats and the oh so fun mood swings. Without a doubt I am not the same person I was 20 months ago when we pulled up roots and embarked on the full-time RV lifestyle. Champ and I as a couple are not the same either. I didn’t think it was possible to be connected more deeply than we already were. But, we are. Growth is inevitable both for the Rv’er and their family. Today I am going to share my thoughts on how people have contributed to my evolution over the past year and a half. I can safely say as a human being, a parent and a friend I have experienced something of a growth spurt these past many months.
When we were living our traditional, brick and mortar lifestyle we travelled quite a bit and saw many interesting places. But our view of the world was relatively narrow spending most of our days in the same town, seeing the same people day-to-day, loosely following the same routine. Every now and then you meet someone new, but everyone else is busy trying to keep up on their own treadmill. Our decision to become more mobile has brought a depth and richness to our lives that we are just now beginning to realize. The extended stays of 90 days or more have given us time to really get to know the people that we meet and connect with. We experience the communities more as residents than as visitors. The lifestyle, thrusts us into new relationships with people who become a part of us. I have talked many times about how I marvel at the number of people we know and stay in touch with, over such a short time. My life is so much richer for knowing these people. They have lived their lives in a different part of the country and developed under the wing of cultures very different from the Midwest and have both striking similarities and differences in their perception of the world. Our differences mesh at the intersection we call friendship.
A perfect example is the immigration debate. In Iowa where we have industries that rely heavily on the immigrant population for their workforce we see the issue through a very different lens than south Texas does, where “the Wall’ is running through the middle of their town. People in that culture have lived their lives experiencing Hispanic culture in a very different way than a Midwesterner has. Spending time there has given me a whole other way to think about the issue that I would not have had otherwise.
Being a parent has changed. Traveling forces us to watch our kids go through a rough patch from a distance. They can call and talk or face-time with us, but we aren’t there to hug them or swoop in and help. We grow along with them as we let them cope without our physical presence. As the old saying goes, “Live your life and let your kids live theirs”. Easier said than done. We are all growing in that area. When we leave for part of the year and add to our experiences we savor our time in Iowa more than ever. Opportunities to be involved with loved ones in Iowa don’t get squandered, they are savored. We experience people at home with more depth than before adding another facet to the process of growing. The complacency of a life lived in the same place everyday disappears when you ‘go full-time’.
I’ll talk more over the next couple of posts about other ways our lifestyle change has impacted my personhood. While the sacrifice of not being present sometimes seems daunting; in the big picture I have grown in unexpected ways. Every person you meet no matter what your lifestyle will change you. The difference is a simple matter of numbers. The full-time RV’er is constantly meeting new people and getting used to new places. The closest analogy I can think of would be a military family who uproots regularly.
Until tomorrow...
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