Mid Life Crisis Or Just Ready To Live?
Ya know what...it's clear now that some have utterly missed the actual question and gotten the seriously off the wall impression this was a dire, desperate sort of question when it wasn't. If you a...
Forum Discussion
As you've just learned, putting it all into words is an *excellent* start. It can certainly clarify things for you.
Here's my 2 cents worth (and since I'm very wordy, it's going to come out to about 8 cents' worth, so forgive me):
I apparently was the only one who read your entire post because I seem to be the only one to reply so far that already knew your son was homeschooled. If not for that I would have said, Absolutely not, no way in hell. A 16 year old needs to stay with his friends! (I'm 56 but most of my closest friends right now are people I was in high school with. It would have devastated me to have been pulled away from "my tribe" at that age.)
I'm 100% with NYCgrrl, who advised: "Since you feel you are depressed I'd suggest getting medical help for that problem before making any further life altering plans." FIRST figure out whether it's situational depression or chemical depression, and what to do about it. Having inherited it myself, I can tell you that for awhile in my earlier life, travelling seemed to ease my depression, but then it starts up again when you stop moving. And you have to stop moving SOMEtime. So first, make sure this isn't a factor. Fix it if it is.
With all that out of the way, if you feel the call of the open road and have for awhile, lots of people will tell you to figure out whether you can afford it first, etc etc. I say, screw that. One of the BIG draws of this life is how much control you yourself have over your normal monthly expenses. Cash getting short this month? Stay put for a few more weeks: Gasoline will almost always be your first or second major expense.
If you want to, you CAN earn your life on the road. Check out The Caretaker Gazette,and CoolWorks.com. You can also volunteer as a host, often for full rent and hook-ups, or you can learn how to dry-camp in places for greatly reduced fees (or even for free).
Chris and Cherie of Technomadia posted a great, informative post about this very subject just last month, with most everything all in one place. (These guys are freakin' AWESOME; spend A LOT of time on their website; it's a blast and you will learn so much.)
Another important aspect is community. Every human needs some kind of community, so if you do go full time, make sure you make the effort to connect with them or create them for yourself. Technomadia was also one of the driving forces behind RVillage, a community of FT or heavily-traveled RVers.
Now that I've said all that, what about your 16-year-old? That's something only you and he can answer. If he had some really close friends or family members (excluding the grandparents, of course :-), I'd be tempted to leave him with them to finish his schooling, so his life is more stable, even if it now lacks all the niceties he used to have. He's not going to have them again anyway.
OTOH, he certainly can learn an awful lot traveling like this, and have some experiences he might not get again. But I'm just afraid, at the end of the day, that this would be a lonely time for him without other teenagers around. (Which is my opinion of home-schooling a teenager in general... unless said teenager was miserable in school because his peers were nasty jerks.)
P.S. You don't need anyone in your family to approve. I say kick 'em to the curb if they're trying to stop you from doing what feels right to you simply so *they'll* have less anxiety about *your* life choices.
P.P.S. Your cat will not hate you. Your cat will be freaked out by the moving vehicle until s/he finally adjusts to that.
Here's my 2 cents worth (and since I'm very wordy, it's going to come out to about 8 cents' worth, so forgive me):
I apparently was the only one who read your entire post because I seem to be the only one to reply so far that already knew your son was homeschooled. If not for that I would have said, Absolutely not, no way in hell. A 16 year old needs to stay with his friends! (I'm 56 but most of my closest friends right now are people I was in high school with. It would have devastated me to have been pulled away from "my tribe" at that age.)
I'm 100% with NYCgrrl, who advised: "Since you feel you are depressed I'd suggest getting medical help for that problem before making any further life altering plans." FIRST figure out whether it's situational depression or chemical depression, and what to do about it. Having inherited it myself, I can tell you that for awhile in my earlier life, travelling seemed to ease my depression, but then it starts up again when you stop moving. And you have to stop moving SOMEtime. So first, make sure this isn't a factor. Fix it if it is.
With all that out of the way, if you feel the call of the open road and have for awhile, lots of people will tell you to figure out whether you can afford it first, etc etc. I say, screw that. One of the BIG draws of this life is how much control you yourself have over your normal monthly expenses. Cash getting short this month? Stay put for a few more weeks: Gasoline will almost always be your first or second major expense.
If you want to, you CAN earn your life on the road. Check out The Caretaker Gazette,and CoolWorks.com. You can also volunteer as a host, often for full rent and hook-ups, or you can learn how to dry-camp in places for greatly reduced fees (or even for free).
Chris and Cherie of Technomadia posted a great, informative post about this very subject just last month, with most everything all in one place. (These guys are freakin' AWESOME; spend A LOT of time on their website; it's a blast and you will learn so much.)
Another important aspect is community. Every human needs some kind of community, so if you do go full time, make sure you make the effort to connect with them or create them for yourself. Technomadia was also one of the driving forces behind RVillage, a community of FT or heavily-traveled RVers.
Now that I've said all that, what about your 16-year-old? That's something only you and he can answer. If he had some really close friends or family members (excluding the grandparents, of course :-), I'd be tempted to leave him with them to finish his schooling, so his life is more stable, even if it now lacks all the niceties he used to have. He's not going to have them again anyway.
OTOH, he certainly can learn an awful lot traveling like this, and have some experiences he might not get again. But I'm just afraid, at the end of the day, that this would be a lonely time for him without other teenagers around. (Which is my opinion of home-schooling a teenager in general... unless said teenager was miserable in school because his peers were nasty jerks.)
P.S. You don't need anyone in your family to approve. I say kick 'em to the curb if they're trying to stop you from doing what feels right to you simply so *they'll* have less anxiety about *your* life choices.
P.P.S. Your cat will not hate you. Your cat will be freaked out by the moving vehicle until s/he finally adjusts to that.
