Chapter 2 : The Plan

With the growing demands of work and everyday struggles, the dream of Antarctica, took a back seat. Struggling between working and managing home responsibilities plus raising a family, the time was never enough. Switching job, starting business, switching cities and shutting businesses, the finances dwindled.

As I was closing by my 40^th year of existence, the desire to break free from the everyday routine started getting stronger. I was looking for ways to escape. On one such day when I was deep in my thoughts about my escape plans, my daughter started asking me questions about my earlier travels. Answering  her innocent questions of where I had been and what did I do there, who did I go with, somehow gave me a deep sense of satisfaction. I realized that she was very proud of her mother being able to travel alone and my answers were setting aspirations for her. I felt proud. She got me reconnected with my love for travel and I started to work on my plan to visit Antarctica.

The first question I had to settle was that of money. A trip to Antarctica is costly. We as a family could afford only one person going. My daughter was disappointed but she was also quick to learn one of the most important lessons of her life. Dreams need hard work. While deciding to use up my savings and some loan from my husband, there were many questions that I had to answer to myself. What was the most important purpose of my money? It could save a life, it could buy happiness for my loved ones or it could help me build memories. I couldn’t find any other more pressing purpose of money. Medical insurance was taking care of saving lives and between buying happiness for my loved ones or myself, I chose to be selfish. Once this decision was made in my mind, arranging funds and swiping cards was the easier bit.

The next bit was figuring out a 20 day leave period from family responsibilities and from work. Aligning both the fronts to work in my absence made me realize how much importance we give to ourselves. We assume that we control not just our lives but of others too. The truth is far from that. The truth is, we rarely have any control on our own lives forget about others. No one is indispensable and humans can adapt very easily. My daughter aligned her daily activities in my absence and listed down items on which she needed help. My family and support system pitched in to solve her problems. Same approach helped in work front and I was made redundant for 20 days at least for others and in my opinion, I learnt that I was redundant in the overall scheme of things.