Do you remember when you were a kid and time seemed to move so slow? Think about it. For instance, in my own life example, there was a time when I would sport quite the long mane of hair. When I reflect with comedic pleasure on those days with my kids, it feels as if that was a big chunk of my life. In actuality, it was a little over two years. My skater phase? 1 year. My rave phase? 1 year. I either have some real commitment issues here (my wife must have fixed that) or I simply enjoyed reinventing myself. The latter is the argument I plan on using. But the fact remains that I envision these short bursts of time as small lifetimes. It’s weird, because as you get older and gain more responsibility, time flies. Yeah, I know you’ve heard it before but I’ve been trying to stress it to my kids that these times that they are in are truly awesome! And comparitively…slow. And slow is good.

As if speeding up my life through natural life cycles and responsibilities wasn’t enough, I became engaged in this little travel hobby. I’m not going to say it consumes me because it is basically a second life. What I described to my wife the other day as an alter-ego. I actually added some travel spice to that and told her I was going to rename my blog, the Alter-Wego. Get it, alter-WEgo. I see the head shaking, so moving on. Travel is fun, awesome, invigorating and truly life changing, but what it also does is consume time, in massive chunks. For me, it’s an even mix of blogging, researching, making itineraries and reservations and, of course, the travel itself. If this was my full time job, I think it wouldn’t be as crazy as it is, especially when you’re traveling every few months like we are, but it’s not all that I do. Hence, the alter-WEgo. Just let me entertain myself with that word. We essentially have another life, a full time one as well. The kids go to school, the wife works and shuttles kids to and fro, and then there’s me. I have a career that isn’t travel related, but uniquely, is financial services related. More on that when the time’s right. Again, time. What I’ve learned is that, much like the planes we travel, time flies even faster for us frequent fliers. I can barely keep track of the timeframe of our travels. I just know I was there and can pick it close to the year if I think hard enough.

If it sounds like I’m complaining, this is far from the truth. The reality of it be known, is that we prefer this way of life. We chose this path to provide us with memories. So it doesn’t allow for the type of life where you sit out on your porch and watch the world go by, true. Instead, we must go find the world ourselves and experience it firsthand. The trade off is unique in that we give up time to invest in memories. Three years into this hobby now and it may be the fastest three years I’ve ever experienced, but it’s jam packed with many adventures and plenty of fun.

So yes, you could say it is true that time flies, but you can fly with it if you choose. It won’t slow the process down, but it may just make you appreciate it more.

“Live Within Your Means, Travel Beyond Them”