MY GROWN UP GAP YEAR

It was just over a year ago that pretty much out of the blue I decided to take a ‘grown up gap year’ with my then 6 year son Cameron so we could travel around the world together. I don’t think people who knew me well were overly surprised because I have always enjoyed travelling and have been fortunate enough to have enjoyed some lovely holidays over the years. However at the age of 47 I had never spent longer than 3 weeks at a time outside my home county of West Sussex.

Travelling the world had long been a dream of mine, I had intending to take a GAP year after A’Levels but alas I fell in love with my first serious boyfriend and by the age of 19 was engaged with a massive mortgage. We barely had enough money spare to enjoy a cup of coffee out, let alone afford holidays, so for many many years I went without.

Fast forward and without boring you with all the details of my numerous failed relationships I found myself bringing up both my children pretty much single handedly – Georgia who is now 21, and Cameron who is 7.

Over the years I have worked stupidly hard and ridiculously long hours, but admist that I have been able to put both children through private education, give them some wonderful holidays and most importantly create the most incredible memories with them.

In 2017 I finally managed to pay off my mortgage after 28 years, and a year later I had my heart completely broken after being betrayed by a man I loved, cherished and believed in. Something inside of me just knew it was the time to stop dreaming and start doing. I have spent the last 17 years working in the funeral profession as an Independent Celebrant and I have seen far too many lives ended too early and dreams never accomplished. I don’t know how many times I have spoken words along the lines of “tomorrow isn’t promised to anyone….” and I know that includes myself, despite the fact that I like to think I am immortal!

After making the decision that I was definitely going to do this, I contacted my sons school the following day to tell them that I would be withdrawing him for 12 months they broke up in July,and within the 2 weeks which followed an entire year of travel was booked and paid for!

We already had a holiday booked to Dubai in the July so we took that first before beginning our ‘proper’ travels.

Our journey began in Vancouver, Canada where after 6 days in the city we boarded the Rocky Mountaineer train through some of the most spectacular scenery I have ever seen on an epic two day journey through to Banff (after almost 12 months this has still been one of the travel highlights of the entire year). From there we spent the next few weeks making our way across Canada, crossing the Canadian/American border at Niagara and heading down New York City. Having crossed North America coast to coast it was time to head home and ‘swap’ my children as I had already promised my older daughter a trip to Las Vegas for her 21st birthday! This meant a triple hop across the Atlantic as I then had to go back to the U.K. again so that Georgia could return to work and I would pack up Cameron once more for the next chapter of the journey.

Next stop was a flight to Chicago and from there it was another rail adventure working our way down to Memphis and New Orleans.

It was here that we picked up a cruise ship and spent Christmas and new year sailing around the Caribbean.

After yet another short pit stop back home in early January we then started the longest consecutive part of our travels where over 4 and a half months we fully circumnavigated the globe. We flew down to Malaysia, Singapore and then on to Sydney. From Sydney we picked up our 2nd cruise ship and took a two week cruise around New Zealand. The cruise brought us back to Sydney and from there we spent the next 7 weeks working our way up the east coast via Brisbane, Cairns and the tropics of Port Douglas. From the rain forest to the desert – our final stop in Australia was Ayres Rock and another tick off the bucket list.

From Ayres Rock we flew to Auckland where we picked up our 3rd and final cruise ship (well for this year anyway!). We spent 24 truly wonderful nights sailing from Auckland to San Francisco through the South Pacific/French Polynesia calling at 9 islands before reaching our final port of San Francisco. The final 3 weeks of this chapter were spent in California and Hawaii.

June saw is return to the U.K. again, but not for long. As I write this I am sitting by the pool soaking up the sun in Bali! We are here for 4 weeks and will spend an additional week in Hong Kong before we head home in Mid August.

The plan was that Cameron would return to school in September, however this last year of travel and world schooling has been so enriching and has benefited him beyond my wildest dreams, hence before we left for Bali I contact his school and told them that he wouldn’t be returning for at least another year.

And so our journey continues… what is in store for us over the next 12 months I still don’t know. What I do know however is that I have absolutely NO REGRETS. It’s taken me 30 years to finally take the gap year I have always dreamed of, and my only piece of advice for anyone even remotely doing similar is . . .

JUST DO IT!

BY TERRI SHANKS Founder & Director of The Fellowship of Professional Celebrants