The Book

“Because at some point you have to stop living the life you’ve fallen into and start living the life you want.”

Our future may not yet be certain but one thing is for sure; our book is being written so you’d better look forward to it. It’ll centre on the beauty that is life and the ability that we all have, to do what we want, if we’re big enough to get out there and do it for ourselves.

It’ll talk alot more about the reasons I became a fan of the Green Bay Packers in the first place. What it was like growing up without access to the team and my desires to grab anything “NFL” that I could get my hands on. (The attached picture is when i was 15 years old. I have been saving it for the right post all of this time.)

I’ll also write about the planning process, the ups and downs and the reasons we decided that now was the right time to take this trip. This will include the realisation that I hadn’t fulfilled the desires of my younger self to do the things I promised him that I would. It’ll also include the idea that I had finally come to terms with the fact that the things I wanted in life were never going to be gifted to me by another person, or coming flying out of a magical, genie filled bottle.

Perhaps the most detailed parts of what I plan to write though, centre on the experience itself and the things I didn’t dare write about here on the site:

• The struggle of being away from all family, friends and regular routines
• The difficulty we faced in the first few days as we fumbled our way through an empty downtown
• Having to set up a home and buy things that we already owned but couldn’t bring with us
• The challenges Kelly and I faced, as parents, with the realisation that things may in fact be a lot more difficult than we first anticipated
• The number of times, through the first 6 weeks at least, that Qantas was only a phone call away
• The road trips, game days and what went on before and after

Sure, we had a ton of fun, for the most part it was the time of our lives. In some of the harder times though it was incredibly difficult. Kelly and I have come out of this, I believe, alot stronger than when we came in. We did something for ourselves that alot of people don’t and I’m proud of both of us for that.

Apart from the obvious Packer related story line, our journey and the lessons we learned as a husband and wife, mother and father will be included also.

I’ve learned alot about being an individual since we arrived. About, quite literally “living the life you want, not the life you’ve fallen into”. I believe I’m a better husband, a better father and a better friend. I’m certainly less focused on material things and I appreciate firsthand the things that Kelly does for the three of us that I would never have seen if our lives had stayed the same.

Kelly, despite being comfortable with the life we were already living has learned that as a family unit, good or bad, you can get through whatever life lays before you. She has learned that obstacles don’t come down to “I can’t do it” they come down to “how can I do it?” I don’t know that Kelly could have been a better Mother than before we left. She is certainly stronger as a result of the travel though.

Since Ben was born the four of us have never been together for as long as we have over the last 6 months. I’m hoping that one day, our children, how ever many there end up being, will look back on this trip as the guidance they need in their lives to pursue their dreams and experience everything that life has to offer.

The idea, the decision, the plan and the experiences along the way have been some of the best of our lives. When you throw in details of what turned out to be an incredible season of football, the game day commentary, our day to day experiences here in Green Bay, the people we met, the things we did and a complete budget from Visa applications to excess baggage costs on the way home, you can see there’s plenty, if not too much, for us to write about.

Both Kelly and I look forward to sharing the story with you all in its full fledged, sometimes difficult, usually happy, fun-loving and carefree entirety. 

Make you sure you leave a comment, send us an email or join the mailing list so I can keep you posted re: its release.


(See link on the noticeboard if you need to find this again easily)