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My Journey to a life on the road

Back to Toronto after a week on the road. The last few days have been amazing. I left on Thursday for New York City, came back on Monday morning (5am to be exact), then headed to Buffalo New York the same day, and by 1am I was back to Toronto saying to myself: “This is crazy”. Hold on there is more. On the next day, I was back on the road again this time going to Brantford Ontario and came back to Toronto around 11pm. Two days later, here I am on my way to Montreal for a week-end of festivities. In a few weeks, I am heading back to New York and if things go according to plan, I may go to Africa later this year (crazy isn’t it?).

As I am writing this, I am amazed at how my life has turned out. Never in my mind had I thought I would travel this much. In fact, since July 2005, I have traveled at least every 3 months. On my way home from Brantfort, I was thinking a few years back about what my mom said to me when I was coaching Basketball. She said “when are you going to have a life?”. And my response was “Mom , this is my life”. She said this because I was gone all the time.

As years went by, my mom’s question kept bugging me. When am I going to have a life? I asked myself this very question before last week in New york City. In one of the sessions at our conference, during a panel discussion, one of the speakers was asked how he has been able to manage family life with his many trips around the world. The question caught my attention (maybe I will get something to tell my mom lol).

He then said (I am paraphrasing): “Can you give me the definition of a good father or husband? Yes I travel 3 weeks per month, but my family never misses me. And I never miss them. We have agreed on how we are going to live our lives regardless of how society says a family should live. We can create the life we want, and we can create great memories along the way.”

I felt a sense of relief after I heard this. In fact, I have created great memories with my trips. I will never forget how emotional my trip to Mali was. The moments I lived were priceless. This is an opportunity that is not given to everybody and I won’t take it for granted (and I like to travel. Every time I go somewhere, I am doing things I love to do. What more can I ask for?

Although my mom’s question is still valid (and I know she asked it out of love), I think I can create a family life that includes a lot of travel (how about a trip to Hawaii with my loved ones? Wouldn’t that be nice?)

We can create the life we want, how we want it to be and still enjoy it. That is my new mission. I am inviting you to do the same, and the world will live as one (as John Lennon said).

Moral of the story? Do you want to have a great family life? Start traveling a lot and your mom will ask when you are going to have a life.

Always a pleasure

Patrick
The Journeyman
Pbizindavyi6@gmail.com

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