Comes a Time... (by Charlie)

“You did what?!?”“, my client asked, pretending he hadn’t heard me the first time. “I quit my job”, I repeated. Disbelief, amazement and lunacy are just a few of the reactions I’ve received from those who’ve learned of my most recent news. “You do realize how many stockbrokers are getting tossed onto the streets as a result of this horrible financial crisis, right?” My answer: Well, yes, I think I do … after all, this is only about the third or fourth series of layoffs & cutbacks I’ve endured during my last two decades on Wall Street. And yes, I suppose this one looks more ominous, but … isn’t it all about timing, anyway?

Jane, our eldest child, is graduating from high school this month, ready to depart for college and to begin the next series of life’s lessons. Wait a minute … she’s only 17 years old! If she leaves now, she’s never coming back – or, at least, not for any decent length of time. The time to act was NOW, and fortunately, Merrill Lynch (my employer for the past 14 years) was reeling from their own predicament and feeling the same way. In early April, the emailed “offer” to Merrill’s US employees for voluntary retirement landed in my inbox. “But isn’t 46 years of age too young to retire?”, I said to myself. The brain answered “yes” but the heart was not so easy to convince. Nor, I might add, was my wife. Colleen and I had been scheming for months about the possibilities of taking some time off to show the real world to our children. We’d recently concluded that we were running out of opportunities to make any further significant & lasting impressions on/with our kids … until April, those were just idle thoughts.

So … what’s the plan? Priority #1 is to get as far away from here as possible ... not forever, of course, but certainly long enough to appreciate why we choose to live here in the first place. Our adventure begins in August, when we’ll depart SFO for Europe (for 4-5 months) … from there it’s off to South America in early 2009 (for another 4-5 months) ... we plan to incorporate some pleasure travel, Church missionary and volunteer work (http://www.globalvolunteers.com) and Spanish language & cultural immersion.

Join us for the journey, won’t you ?

Mary's First Response

One day, I was in the car with my dad, brother & sister. Dad asked me if I'd be okay with skipping school for a year to go on a missions trip. "Sure!" Fast forward to dinner that night. The conversation quickly turned to the subject of this possible trip. My mom explained to me that 'skipping school' meant that I'd be a year behind my friends in school when we got back. "No way!" I couldn't stop crying for a long time. How could I leave my friends and my dog for a year? Jane came in to my room and I told her how it would be torture to leave my friends for 10 months. What if they made new friends? What if they don't like me when I'm a year behind them in school? She told me how she has church friends who are older than she is and that comforted me . . . for a few minutes.

As I thought about other bad things about leaving, I started to cry again. I finally fell asleep, but my nose was stuffed up and my eyes were puffy when I woke up the next morning. At breakfast my mom talked to us about amazing things. She reminded us how great of an opportunity this was. She said, "How often do you eat breakfast with Dad on a weekday morning?" As I thought about the trip I began to understand that it is God's will for our family and that I shouldn't be crying. I should be excited to help so many people around the world!

I told the news to some of my friends at school. I received very different reactions. One of them said she was going to kill me and another said she was happy for me. I like the second response...