Everyone has anniversaries commemorating wonderful occasions such as birthdays, weddings, engagements and a host of other significant moments in their lives. Many people celebrate these days with fabulous parties, momentous nights out, or extra special dining experiences.

We have never been ones to celebrate our birthdays or even our wedding anniversary as we try to live by the old adage that ‘every day is special’. That’s obviously not true though as some days really are more special than others. Saturday 24th February 2018 was a bit of a red-letter day for us JWalkers as it marked exactly one thousand days since we started our new vagabonding life.

1000 Days of JWalking

Someone told us that ‘it really didn’t seem that long’ but we had no idea how long 1000 days was supposed to feel. We are used to days, weeks and months defining our lives but a huge number like that is almost unimaginable. So how long is it exactly? Well since Monday June 1st 2015 it has been;

• 33 months
• 143 weeks
• 1000 days
• 24,000 hours
• 1,440,000 minutes
• 86,400,000 seconds

Seem like a long time now? Sometimes it feels like only yesterday that we left our old lives and other times we just can’t remember life being any different.

How were we feeling on Day Number One?

Excited and exhausted in equal measures. After quitting our jobs, getting rid of virtually all of our possessions, and planning what we were going to be getting up to we set off with no preconceived ideas or dreams at all. We had just decided that we wanted our lives to be different and fancied a bit of an adventure.

It seemed like a good idea at the time.

We honestly had no earth-shattering dream about finding ourselves or conquering the world. The most important part was that we wanted to be together and try to live life day by day. Then just see where that took us. So when people ask if it has worked out as we expected we just have to reply that we didn’t expect anything, we still don’t. Every day is different which is one of the things that we love most of all about our current life.

Has the experience changed us at all?

Undoubtedly yes. The magical part of JWalking is that every day throws up new experiences that we try to face head on and enjoy as much as we can. When we started we hadn’t heard of housesitting or Helpx and now they are a huge part of our lives. Although it really isn’t the way of life that has changed us it is the wonderful people that we’ve encountered and become friends with that have touched us more than anything else. We now know people all over the world that we are deeply honoured to be able to call friends and their kindness and generosity has deeply touched and humbled us. Our lives are forever richer because of them all. From Tonia and Andre in Nijmegen on Day 1 to Simon and Mary on Day 605 and Miriam on Day 975, they’ve all been wonderful.

So why is 1000 days a big deal?

I guess it’s not really, it is after all just another day but it does affirm that our big decision was the right one. Who knew how it might have turned out? We could have hated the vagabonding life and yearned for our own front door within weeks. Or even worse, one of may have hated it whilst the other was happy. How awful would that have been? So it isn’t a fireworks-in-the-sky, look-at-us celebration party rather a ‘Wow, it’s going okay so far’ quiet drink.

Do you know what I really love about the 1000 days?

That’s me especially, Jo thinks I’m a bit of a geek (probably true). What I think is absolutely amazing is that I know what we did on virtually every single one of those 1000 days. Obviously not what we had for breakfast or what time we had coffee but I know where we were staying, what we were doing, and who we were doing it with. It’s something I never even imagined until a few days ago when a good friend threw a few questions at me (where were you on day 76, and what happened on day 632 etc) and after working out the exact date I was amazed that I could remember. Crazy eh. No idea what I did on the 10,000 days before we left.

Are we continuing for another 1000 days?

Again we were asked this recently and the answer is a definite NO. We never plan that far ahead so we’re continuing until October this year and then will see what life brings along. We love the lack of long-term plans so there is no way we ever know what is around the corner. We have no plans to stop though.

This post could easily have been a list of places we have visited and trips we’ve made. Perhaps a list of countries visited or miles flown. But they are just incidentals. It has all been about friends, new and old, and being together. Long may that continue.

(So if you want to ask what we did on a particular day and test me then go for it. Or even suggest something we could do next. Or just say ‘Well done Jo for putting up with him’.)

24/02/2018