Author: Kitabel

Who/ what will you leave behind for these weeks and how will that work (or not) for you?

The above is in response to a call for questions I should ask my shipmates.  My intention is to interview as many as would like to be and/or I have time for while at sea.  But maybe I should answer that question, myself, first.

I am leaving behind a young family and a busy couple of martial arts schools.  But “leaving behind” is a bit too dramatic.  Our lives already have been a constant dance of parting and coming together again.

My younger children, now 8 and 11, have gone on month-long road trips with their grandparents every year since they were about 5; my husband travels to conventions, tournaments, Black Belt testings in the US and abroad; my oldest child, now 14, has travelled overseas every summer for the past three years, and is living abroad this year as an exchange student in music school in South Africa.  And this past summer my travels began again after a 15-year hiatus with a trip back to Finland, and then a first visit to Africa… now the SEA again.

(And why do I keep capitalizing SEA?  Besides the immensity of it for me, it is also the acronym of Sea Education Association, with whom I sailed 24 years ago, and will again in less than two weeks. Check out www.sea.edu .)

In some ways, then, our family is particularly prepared for mom to ship out for a month and a half.  They will keep their rhythm.  Fantastic grandparents will be there to keep the tempo—they who have been adventuring for at least as long as I can remember.

So, while I feel a bit like a hobbit who has been visited by Gandalf, I can hardly claim that a sedentary life has been disrupted.  On the other hand, 15 years was a long time to stay put and I was just about contemplating that it might be time for a mid-life crisis.  Add to that– I’m not leaving my family behind for a tour of duty as a soldier, as so many have had to.  I am quite aware of how fortunate I am.

They will all have to function without me for a few weeks.  And I will have to simply keep too busy to miss them too much.  They’ll be fine, both realizing new independence and appreciating more clearly where they really do need and want me.  They are my solid foundation, and without them as they are, I couldn’t be without them.  It will be a huge time of growth for all of us, this hobbit quest.

So how did some ordinary suburban mom get to go to sea on an expedition?

The long answer is a loose series of accepting opportunities, contemplating adversity and pursuing dreams… with a good deal of random chance and supportive network.

In short: about twenty years ago I sailed on a research vessel with SEA Semester part of my junior year in college. This past July, SEA Semester sent out a call for interested alumni to apply for about twenty volunteer positions on a plastics expedition to the Pacific Gyre. Right away I began to dream, but also realistically admitted that it was not for me. I have responsibilities at home and with our two martial arts schools. I couldn’t afford to be gone for six weeks, and I certainly didn’t have the scientific background to make myself a serious applicant. But I read the information more closely, and they were also looking for writers and a connection with the K-12 world: those needs, I might help fill. So I applied and was happily astounded to be selected.

The supportive network comes in the form of nuclar and extended family, friends, homeschool groups, schoolteachers, and social media. I asked my daughter how she felt, and she encouraged me to do what I encourage them to do: “Pursue your dream, Mom.” My only detractor is an ambivalent 8-year-old son, who will understandably miss mom, even though he thinks the whole thing is really cool. Could I do it without going so far away for so long? We’ve read sea adventures, and he knows the ocean can be a dangerous place: there are storms and pirates and ghost ships and kraken and all sorts of mysterious sea creatures. Those adventures are fun to imagine, but for real? Mom?