We love to go back and review the posts we have written over the last 3 years. So, we where were recently nominated by The Road Forks to participate in a fun project called My 7 Links through Tripbase.com it was a great opportunity to read what we have written. In it, we are asked to list one post in each to these categories:
- Most beautiful
- Most popular
- Most controversial
- Most helpful
- A post whose success surprised us
- A post we feel didn’t get the attention it deserved
- The post of which we are most proud
Most beautiful
We’ve seen lots of fantastic things on our journey, but nothing compares to the incredible beauty of facing our fears and moving forward. It is a feeling like nothing else, and it doesn’t take a passport or a plane ticket to get there. We wrote this post called Everything You Want is on the Other Side of Fear just before leaving for the big trip.
Most popular
A few mentions on Stumble Upon cemented the How to Pack for a RTW Trip (100-day update) as our most popular post. We think people are interested not only in what we chose to bring, but how our expectations matched up to actual performance. It is interesting to note that while this is technically our most popular post, it was a “wham, bam, thank you ma’am” kind of thing in that those readers didn’t stick around long. We prefer the ongoing love affair to the one-night stand, though we can appreciate the merits of a quickie now and then.
Most controversial
This all started off as an anonymous interview on someone else’s blog. Delicious Day interviews people in various lifestyles about their decisions, and I was more than a little surprised to hear that my interview about being childless by choice was more popular than the interview with the professional prostitute from Amsterdam at the time (new blog tag line: “more entertaining than anonymous sex, and cheaper!”). So of course I outed myself and wrote about it here, inviting some interesting conversation on the question: Is it selfish to not have kids?
Most helpful
We had always been open about our methods for saving money for the trip, so when we started traveling the natural extension to that was to show how we spent it. Our October 2010monthly expense report kicked off the tradition, and it became such a great resource for people that we created a sister site, RTW Expenses, to house all the reports and graphs and other expense-related info on long-term travel. It’s good stuff, and one of the things we love to be able to share on our trip. By being transparent, people can see that this is within their reach if they really want it.
Post whose success surprised us
Without a doubt, this was the post when we announced our decision to keep traveling indefinitely and how we needed to work out a financial way to make that happen. When we told you we needed your help in deciding where to settle down for six months as we ramped up our business, you all came through with great suggestions, feedback, and ideas we had not considered. It made the decision process more complicated and more fun, and we loved it. In fact, we’ve decided that you guys are a pretty bossy bunch and we like having your input into these kinds of decisions! So this will not be the last time we put something out there for discussion.
Post that didn’t get the attention it deserved
We talk a lot about dreaming, chasing your dreams, and living the life you want. One thing that doesn’t get enough attention is the angst you will go through as you get to that life, and that not everything you give up or change is what you want to do. Warren wrote about Mourning the Death of his Career and got some great feedback, but because it was early in our blog’s life it hasn’t gotten nearly the amount of traffic it should. Leaving your job is hard, even when you don’t like it. Crazy, but true.
Post we are most proud of
The post we are most proud of is the culmination of our Virtual Minga project in Ecuador. As many of you recall, a “minga” is an event where a community comes together to do something good for all, and we were introduced to this concept our first week of the trip in Ecuador. We love this post not for any great writing but because it showed that we had really become a tribe of our own and done something good together. We loved showing you what your money bought for the clinic in rural Ecuador and how we even had enough left over to put in the bank for future restocking of the pharmacy. You guys warmed our hearts with this one and your money is still working to keep people in that area healthy. Kudos to you all for your generosity.
That’s it. Do you agree? Disagree? Think we overlooked something? Let us know in the comments.
And now it comes time for us to nominate 5 other bloggers to take part. And because we like to broadly interpret the rules (when we bother to follow them at all), we have included blogs about all kinds of adventures, not just the ones requiring a passport. In order to pay it forward, here are 5 additional site we recommend and nominate for participation:
- Good Fish, Good Cook
- My Year without Spending
- Ingrid Ricks
- Where’s Waldner?
- Miss Minimalist
About Betsy
I wanna play! Someone nominate me!
Uh . . . I’m not sure that’s how it works Margit.
I’m SURE that’s not how it works, Tranque, but I didn’t get where I am by playing by the rules
Man oh man. I can’t decide which one of you two would win in a rule-breaking contest, though it is a game I’d be thrilled to watch from the sidelines.
Margit, I’ll bet you can get an nomination from Good Cook, Good Fish if you make it known you want one.
Well . . . uh . . . I’m not exactly sure where you are so I can’t know how you got there. But congratulations anyway!
You truly have so damn many great posts that I’ll bet this was difficult for you to do. Your overall “theme” of your blog really speaks to me and I enjoy both of your writing styles which are insightful and feel very heart-felt.
I’m definitely going to spend some time checking out those blogs you’ve recommended.
BTW, that pic of you two at the top of this post is a great one! Is it really true that blondes have more fun?
Ha! Well, I did enjoy the stint as a blonde until my hair started falling out (note to self: some things are not meant to be DIY for people who don’t follow instructions well). Warren’s hair is so short and grows so fast that I think his was gone in just a few weeks.
We were both blonde the summer before we left on our great adventure, and since we spent it saying prolonged and fabulous goodbyes to our friends and hosting an incredible Meet, Plan, Go event for 150 people in Seattle (along with a weekly happy hour for travelers in the months leading up to it)…then yes, we did have a lot of fun as blondes!
But I can’t say that life is too boring with my mousy brown hair now. It’s not what’s on your head but what’s in it that makes the difference.
You guys look great!
Thanks, Dasi. We’re feeling pretty great these days!
A reminder of how happy we are to have found you (and a reminder that we need to click on a couple of those links that happened before we found you!). Once we get back from the wilderness - we’re currently in Glacier National Park - I’m excited to read about Warren leaving his job.
Kent, we’re so jealous! Glacier National Park is on our list of must-sees. We hope you are having a fantastic time and can’t wait to see pics.
I keep hoping one day we’ll be on at least the same continent and can plan a meetup somewhere. We can talk former careers, new lifestyles, and life in general. I have a feeling we would have a great time!
I agree that you have both written so many great posts it must have been difficult to choose.
Thanks so much for nominating me, I will take on this challenge for next week’s post. I have no idea if I’ve ever written a “beautiful” post (especially since my photography skills leave so much to be desired), but I’ll have to start looking…
I do remember reading Warren’s post about leaving his job and I could really relate to it. Most choices we dream about aren’t necessarily perfect, and every turn we take leaves other possibilities behind. It can often be bittersweet. I have more than once finished a job that was practically killing me, only to find myself in tears that I would no longer be seeing a certain person or talking to a particular new friend everyday, etc. Although the tears were also probably due to exhaustion.
Thanks for the nomination! Now it’s time to get my brain moving! Great posts from you guys. Always good to go down memory lane.
I thought your hair looked red! Must have been the bright yellow walls that threw me off. But then I’m a redhead so I’m partial like that.
Betsy, I don’t know if you remember me… I wrote a while back about coming closer to my dream of relocating overseas….getting past fear…selling most of my worldly goods…overcoming fear…I can’t remember which post I was commenting on…moving ahead fearlessly….but I’m ALMOST THERE!! I’ll be leaving for the Mediterranean in November!! I’m so excited I think I’ve regressed about twenty years, which would put me in my 30′s. Not a bad place to be, on the inside
I’m keeping an eye out for blogs (including yours, of course) or other places with info on making a transition to a completely different culture/lifestyle etc… Please let me know if any resources come to mind that might help.
Your blog is awesome!
Debi, of course I remember. I’m so excited for you! Be sure to check out Peggy’s http://www.midlifepassion.com/ blog, Sherry Ott at ottsworld.com, and Paz at http://www.internationalcravings.com. All of them have great advice on traveling/living overseas as a woman. Alison at cheeseweb.eu also writes about expat life in Brussels.
You are going to have an amazing adventure, and we can’t wait to follow along!
hi
i see your page on facebook and i really very happy for you!!!!
i have only one q….
you spend 2 years working to save money for your “trip”, ok.
how many you save???
when money is coming to end what you do?????
you have to pay for tickets, food, room……
thanks
Hi, tasos. We did a lot of things to save, and we’re getting ready to publish a guide to that this fall. In the meantime, you can read this series we wrote a couple of years ago while we were still saving to get some really great tips: How We Saved
Our initial goal was to save $75,000 US for 2 years of travel with a budget of $100/day. Since then we’ve revised it a bit and plan to travel long-term, which means we will be doing some work along the way to keep paying for it.
If you are interested in how we are spending our savings, you can check out our monthly expense reports at http://www.rtwexpenses.com.