The 5 World explorers

Sarah Lorimer Di Santi

In 2008 my husband and I met. Only a few months after our first date, our first biggest
adventure began: we started a family! Little did we know that our lives together were going to be a whirlwind of big changes!

The first big transition in our family life was in 2010, when, with a newborn and a 1 year old we left our hometown Florence, Italy for a fresh start in Phoenix, Arizona. We sold everything we owned. We went against most of our family that didn’t approve of our choice. We bravely gave up everything we had built in 2 years together for something new!

To this day I am amazed by the courage we had in that moment since we were lacking the
support of friends and family. We did all this with 2 young children.
However the biggest challenges do give you the best satisfactions in the end!
We accomplished a lot in our 8 years in the US and our family grew of another member as well. We were happy and had all we had dreamed of. It was time for a change!

The second big transition in our family life came In 2018 when our biggest adventure started! Again we sold everything. We gave up our comfortable life for a year of world travels. Why? Because the energy in the reality we had created for ourselves was shifting and our family wasn’t fitting in it well anymore.

During a trip to Thailand, our kids manifested a desire to see more. We took this as a sign that we were ready for something new. After a year of planning and preparation we started our big adventure around the world as a family of 5! We have now been traveling for 2 years.

The energy of the new reality we have created for ourselves feels great. Why? Not just because we have experienced over 28 countries and cultures, but because we are so deeply connected as a family.
Shortly after leaving we realized how much we didn’t know our kids. The busy everyday life, packed with school and a million of different activities kept us distracted from each other. Once we were together on the weekends we spent more time dealing with all the little drama and frustration than actually being together 100%.
Once our new life started, together 24/7, there was a lot we had to learn about each other. It took a few months to adjust to everyone’s moods, difficult moments as well as happy ones. It was like starting a family all over again!

Worldschooling has brought us closer.  Slowly Mass and I learned to unschool ourselves from everything that we had been “forced” to learn growing up. The proper things to do with kids. The proper way of educating them and all those other “proper rules” that everyone makes you feel guilty of if you don’t follow! That was such a challenge! Luckily we found this community that helped us navigate through this new way of educating all of us!

Once we decided to embrace worldschooling as the new way of educating our kids while
traveling, our minds opened to a whole new reality. We could see every little moment as a
valuable learning experience for all of us. Maybe some would have touched one of us more than the other. However this is also part of the learning process. We are all different, have different interests! Now we see that so clearly. We don’t want them to be educated in a standard way, but rather start from a young age to follow their inspiration, their interests.
Our new lifestyle has given our kids the opportunity to expand their minds to a whole different level! The world doesn’t feel so big anymore. They adjust immediately to a new reality without any form of discomfort. They treat people equally and have no prejudice based on race, religion or social class. They are curious, so extremely curious. It is refreshing to see and it blows our minds every day!

How do we live our reality now? Everyday starts with the realization that something will happen that will teach us a new lesson. It is such a fascinating way to start the day! When we go in new countries we don’t prepare ourselves too much with history or information about the place. We try not to plan too much. We want to be surprised. We are like a white paper that has to be written on. Our purpose is to learn from the reality we are in and make our own opinions about it, not be influenced by other people’s experience. We ask the locals suggestions on what to see or do. Sometimes we have been recommended some very unique places!
The moment we are exploring something new is the moment we are learning about it together as a family. We are 5 and we will all experience it differently, how cool is that?!

Do we have any plan of settling down? Not at the moment. We want to slow down. Actually the lockdown forced us to for 3 months. However there is much more to see. This moment of stillness for whole world reminded us to be flexible and to listen even more carefully to what surrounds us. There is a story ready to be told everywhere and we are ready to listen and learn from it!

Happy Travels!!!!