Everyone should really have a dream in their life. A reason to wake up and cause them to put a smile on their face straight off and to motivate themselves through the drudgery of life and to give them hope.
To concentrate on only one such dream is to lose out on much in life. To live life with no dreams at all is no better than already being dead and just waiting to be burried.
Me? I'm a dreamer and a person that is always trying to find the 'what if ?' What if I could spend more time with my family? What if our debt was all gone? What if I could find a way to make money and not have to drive an hour to work? What if I could find a way to have income coming in that didn't involve another person or company telling me when I had to wake up in the morning, go to bed at night, when to spend time with my family, how much I could afford at the grocery store that week? What if.. what if I could have freedom? What if I could decide what my day would be like and I was in control of my life instead of a company?
There are different ways in which people try to accomplish this task. Hundreds of thousands of people every year break out on their own to try a new business, a new idea; something to be their own boss. The problem is we are not taught and raised how to make this a reality. In school we are tought how to be one of the many, to mindlessly do what the boss expects of you and to put asside questions, to ignore things you feel are wrong and to continuing being helpless and subservant to the employer. It's what provides the country with a dependable and passive workforce and a tax base that won't question or complain their growing lack of freedoms.
I have my eyes on an opportunity to break away from traditional employment and it has an limitless potential. I won't go into the specifics here but it is a long range plan and I am continuing to work towards it with Tanya.
This webpage is not about that; but about something I've been dreaming about for the last couple weeks that is starting to keep me up and causing me to day dream about. It helps me when things get depressing or out of control over here in Iraq and brings me back to a place where I just put a smile on my face and remember that at the end of things; I have my plan, I have my dream and it's not all that out of the question for making a reality if I focus on it and move towards it with purpose and vigor.
My Dream: Working here in Iraq is going to allow the complete elimination of all debt from my family. Gone will be the car payments, gone the school loan, the miscellaneous credit cards, lines of credit and all those things which the American family has just taken as part of life. After two years even the second mortgage can be completely vanquished and a few years of private school for Kendra set aside in savings.
So, when I return to Michigan the oppotunity for a completely different life is possible. No longer will we be required to have 2-3 jobs to pay our debts; but rather the freedom of being out from under the thumb of so many creditors will have been released. The neccessity to travel States away to find work should no longer be critical in order to maintain a rather decent level of lifestyle. With only a low paying local job we could have a life in which we could decide more options for ourselves.
Now, I'm a rather fast typist (95+ wpm) and I got to thinking about taking some Medical Transcription classes over the internet while I'm here in Iraq. I've got two years before returning home and I could be using this time to get certified for medical transcription so that might be an option when I get back. Such an option would allow me to work from home (notice the cost of fuel recently?) which would cut down on 100's of $ for gas each month, we could just flat out get rid of one of our vehicles (less insurance costs), I would be working from home and becoming very active in Kendra's life. Taking her to school in the morning, attending events with her, etc.
With my typing skills and proper training and certification in medical transcription I could be bringing in enough $ with 12 hours typing to match a full 40 hour work week in the typical $7.50/hour job around the Allegan area (if I can even find a job at all). If I could crank my typing up to 25 hours a week that would offer enough $ to completely remove the need for Tanya to work at the medical clinic. Then of course we'd need to pay for things like medical coverage privately (on our own), but that's okay too.
If I'm running the numbers right here if Tanya and I each only worked 25 hours a week would could pull in far and above more $ than we'd need to pay for living expenses, insurances (house, vehicle, medical, etc) and all the such things as private school for Kendra and still have surplus.
This brings me to my... DREAM !
What if.... What if we got enough funds together to buy a sailboat large enough to live on? What if we just unloaded our house (no mortgage payment) and lived on the sailboat (paid off transportation/home)?
In the summer we could dock at a marina in South Haven, or Holland, or Ludington, Traverse City, Charlevoix? Wherever we felt like living. In the fall we could start sailing down the coast or down the Mississippli to Florida or the Gulf of Mexico. We could say good bye to Michigan winters and travel how we wished.
For income we'd keep our employment in Medical Transcription; only -needing- to work about 2-3 hours a day to meet our financial needs; connected to the internet via satalite internet connection or wireless broadband in the marina we're currently living in.
Can you imagine it? Waking up to the sound of seagulls at sunrise and rolling over on your queen bed in the master cabin at the bow of your 1985 43 foot Morgan Center Cockpit Sloop while Kendra is tucked into her own cabin snoozing away. Waking up to go above deck to unwind the hose on the deck and flip on the submersible pump and spray off the early morning spiders that have set up their webs across your boat during the night; cleaning off the bird poo and whisteling softly as you watch the sunrise over treeline or on the ocean horizon to the East. A while topside with your Bible to read and pray in the quiet of the day before coming back down to the galley and pulling out the eggs and bacon from the refrigerator and starting breakfast. A kiss to your lovely wife as she crawls out of the main cabin in the bow and gives you a morning hug before heading into the fore head for a shower.
Can you imagine pulling back the white curtains over the stove and looking out over the water at the lagoon, the palm trees reaching out over the white sandy beaches on land some two hundred yards from where you are moored in the lagoon. The smell of bacon fills the state rooms as your daughter groans and complains about having to wake up so early and she crawls deeper under her blankets. What's the rush? Let her sleep in for a few more hours; what's it going to hurt?
Grinding the coffee beans you picked up a week ago down in Mexico causes more groaning from your daughter's cabin but it quickly grows quiet once again as you get the coffee machine percolating and mixing it's aroma in with the smell of the eggs and bacon in the galley. Your wife comes into the fore hallway from the fore head dressed in her robe, her hair still damp and looking so lovely. No stress on her face about having to hurry to ready for work, just contentment and happiness at being able to spend every morning like this if she wishes; with her family.
The soft rocking of the boat is a soothing massage to the body as the small waves ease against the sides of the fiberglass hull and your daughter emerges from her own cabin with a wrinkled up nose to complain about the smell of your coffee with a teasing grin.
Newspapers aren't important at the breakfast table because no matter what State you sail to, or country; the news is always about the same so you've stopped really paying attention to all that stress and anger and instead you have devotions with your family after you finish eating and you discuss your plans for the day.
There's rumors heard in the last port about a shipwreck just two hours sail around to the other side of this island and the scuba tanks were filled at last port; it's decided that after sailing around the island and a light lunch you'd go down as a family to dive to observe an ancient spanish merchant sloop sunk a couple hundred years previous. Don't forget your sun screen, it looks like it's going to be nice and warm today.
Can you imagine? Oh, don't forget that after your dive and each of you shower off that you should take three hours to do some medical transcription over the satalight internet uplink while your daughter is reading the novel she's supposed to be doing a book report on by the end of the week and she's studying a few books for her home school work. Imagine looking over from your typing on your laptop as your wife gets up and moves to the center galley where the table has been pulled up for all the studying and working as she helps your daughter understand the pythagorean theorem's fine points. Only twenty more minutes of typing and you've secured enough $ for your family's medical insurance needs, enough money being put into your account to buy food at the next port and new rope for the mainsail. There is no rush, there is only time; lots of time. And all of it offers options.
The big stress then; will be what do you do with all your time? You've already decided as a family that next month you're heading down to South America for a month of volunteer work at a port city for a missionary project. Friends from Michigan have been planning to meet up with you there and one of your daughter's best friends will be coming a board for the month sail back to Florida where she'll catch a plane back to Michigan so she can make it back to school in September.
Can you imagine? What if? What if?
This webpage is going to be my what-if webpage of dreams about my Sailboat and my life with my family aboard.