Wait, You’re Doing What?!?

Kirsten taking a selfie with Brian while sitting on Samba on the West River, MD

When we tell people we decided to quit our jobs, to take a sabbatical for a year to go sailing, we get A LOT of questions. Here are just a few:

• Are you serious?

• What about your jobs?

• Will you have health insurance?

• Wait, do you even know how to sail?

• Did you win the lottery?

• Do you have a life raft?

• How are you going to live without WiFi?

• You’re selling your car, how will you get around?

Samba, our Morgan 382 sailboat, sailing on a beautiful day on the Chesapeake Bay

I’m sure we will get into the details behind all of the answers to these questions, but what is interesting is every initial reaction perfectly aligned with the persons’ personality that asked said question.

Our parents for example, were initially very excited, and then started asking about health insurance and life rafts (also, you WILL text us once per week, "yes mom")

Our friends were thrilled for us and then started asking, “how will you eat? Where will you stay? Are you ever coming back? Can we call you?”

Our jobs both asked, “how are you going to backfill your position?”

My favorite question of all was our three-year-old nephew who asked “Do you have a bed to sleep in?”

A beautiful sunrise over Chalk Point, on the West River, in Maryland

After a while, I was getting frustrated by the disbelief, thinking it was a reflection of us and how people perceived us and our plan; however, after some consideration we realized, each question was not a reflection of us, or how we would do, but a reflection of them and how they would react to a similar situation.

So ask yourself, how would you respond if someone told you they were taking a year off to go sailing? Would you be excited? Apprehensive? What matters most to you and yours?