Giving Thanks - One Final Time

Home Sweet Home

We’ve been home in Canada for 3 months. Wow time flies! The Sharps have re-engaged with ‘real’ life and thought we would provide one last report and reflection. 

Honestly, this blog was hard to write, how do we summarize this amazing experience. With life back in full swing, we feel pulled in more directions. There is so much fun to be had - as well as so much to do. This is perhaps the greatest gift of our travels - the slow down, the focus, the time - that allowed us to experience, to reflect, and to share while on the adventure of a lifetime. Sitting down to capture this was ‘on the list’ for too long. 

We spent much of the summer reconnecting with our favourite people and places. We are so grateful to our friends and families who made our homecoming so wonderful and fun. Canada is spectacular in the summer (in the winter too, its just a lot warmer in the summer) - and we now connect more deeply to how lucky we are to live in this beautiful, abundant and free place. We scratch our heads at the disconnect of the Alberta separation referendum and the polarization we arrive home to. The world teaches us how fortunate we are. We are hopeful that perspective and sanity will prevail.   

For those who we have not seen, a rapid update: Our beloved dog Fitzy is back home with us after a magical year living with her adoptive family: Nancy, Eric, Ivy & Sierra - we are forever thankful “the Fitz” was able to spend the year surrounded by your love and the mountains. Our home is still intact and we love it more than ever: Susan & Rod - thank you for being our trusted and caring tenants that made being away stress free. 

Finlay is in Grade 8 French, he made the soccer team, and usually can be found hanging out with friends or on the golf course. Jasper is in Grade 6 French and is busy playing rugby and biking around the neighbourhood (usually to the candy store!!!) with his buddies. Ian has returned to flying with AirSprint. Erin returned to her consulting business and is busy ramping back up with clients. 

Sometimes our trip feels like a distant memory - did it actually happen? Did we actually pull that off? When you are on the road, it can sometimes feel long; now that we are back it feels but a blink. 

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By The Numbers

Countries: 25

Days Abroad: 296

Flights: 24

Kilometers Travelled: 87,087

By plane: 67,736

By Car/Bus: 5,478

By Train: 7,150

By Boat: 723

Time Zones: 36 Total

Languages we can now say Thank You in: 16

Steps: Too many to count. We think we averaged ~15,000 per day give or take. We walk more now that we are home too!

Frequent flyer points redeemed: over 500k

Hotel Points: Ian had sooo many, we used over 1M points across his various reward programs

Our Final Route

So….What Have We Learned?

Reflection 1: The world is safe. The world is kind. The world is full of magic and wonder. 

We worried so much before we left: what if we get hurt? What if something bad happens? What if we get lost? What we found once we hit the road was people and places that were friendly, welcoming and curious about what we were doing and how they could help. We found friends. We found adventure. We found that we could feel comfortable just about anywhere - and there is so much joy learning ‘the ropes’ in new places so they gradually feel more familiar.  

Reflection 2: You have to take your own self on the road (lol). If you are expecting to be a “totally different person”, you miss the opportunity to accept more of yourself and work on who you want to be. Being together as a family of four 24/7 for 10 months can be hard. Finding something we all agree on is exponentially more complex with four opinions. It is in the struggle, the getting to know each other more deeply, and the commitment to work out tension that our family grew stronger. Some days this felt really hard; other days the magic of being all together appeared effortlessly. We truly understand each other better. We have more confidence in our ability to overcome challenges and do big, cool things. 

Reflection 3: Extended travel is not a vacation. This wisdom was shared with us before we left but we had to live it to learn it. You have great days and hard days. You have to work at the planning, and rally energy to get out and do things together. You have to be okay with being tired, wet, cold, hot, delayed, cancelled, lost and found. And you have to give yourself grace to slow down and not do more all the time. We found our travel rhythm by the end of month two - recognizing when we needed to slow down or when our travel ambition was telling us to do more. The gift of an extended time away is to have the time and space to learn deeply. These experiences equipped our team with resilience to handle uncertainty and change - and our resilience grew over the year. 

Reflection 4: Learnings keep coming up for us. They come in the conversations we have and in the quiet moments together when we “remember that time??”. The kids were asked a great question: “What are you grateful for now, that you weren’t before”. Their response: Clean water. True. We all aspire to more travel - perhaps the boys will go meet some of the friends they made along the way. Ian and Erin may travel back to places they loved (with or without the kids!!), or to the many places that we couldn’t make it to in 10 months (the world is soooo big!). 

Reflection 5: Go. Go Now. You Are Ready. Our friends Ian and Meli took on a similar adventure before we did; when we debriefed with them they shared much wisdom and travel tips (Ian even wrote a book!!) Thank you! The single biggest thing they said to us was “Go. Go Now. You Are Ready”. A corollary argument: there is no ‘good time’ to go. Looking at the state of the world, you can talk yourself into saying there is too much uncertainty in the economy, in global security, in the weather, whatever. There will never be a perfect time, other than now. Sure there are things to figure out, but the biggest leap is making the decision to go, then working through all the barriers that might stand in your way. 

We can now say the same to you. You are ready. To explore the world in short trips or long, in big leaps or small steps. Just get out there. All we would ask is “How Can We Help?”. The universe (those specifically named here and many more!) helped us build the confidence to go. We are here ready to pay it forward so please reach out.  

For now - we are settling back in, getting over our reverse culture shock, finding so much joy in our friends, family and place. We can’t wait to host new friends we met along the way if they can make it to Calgary. See you all soon - here, there and everywhere. 

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Jasper

The trip was the best time of my life or sometimes the worst. We travelled the world, but I missed my friends and grandparents. My favourite place was Zanzibar because I met Issa my best friend on the whole trip. I had a very good time with my brother playing catch or trying to stay up in the waves or racing in the pool, he won most of them; but we didn’t always get along. My favourite meal on the whole trip was at the ryokan (a Japanese spa); there was a 14 course meal with an amuse bouche and the best dessert of my whole life. I’m glad we stayed safe, healthy, and had lots of adventures. 

Finlay

I enjoyed travelling even though I sometimes said that I hated it. I think overall it was worth it. My favourite place was Japan or Singapore for being the most modern place for Singapore and the food in Japan. I also loved learning about the history of Japan a lot. I found it very interesting. My favourite meal on the trip was the one for my moms birthday where we had some fresh sushi. It was also one of the last meals on the trip so I felt that it was very special. I had so much sushi but it was all very good. My best friends on the whole trip were probably my friends Alfred and Valdemar I met them at a resort in Indonesia.

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On this, Canadian Thanksgiving, we are grateful for everyone who helped us make this dream come true. Our families, our friends (new and old), each other - everyone who supported, encouraged and followed along.

Xxx The Sharps.

Stay Sharp, Travel Far