Being Disappointed By What We Didn’t Do

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do ... - Mark Twain

Ever since I started a blog, I’ve used this little quote on it. Mark Twain certainly said many things that are worth quoting and thinking about. This was one of them and it actually made me think when we were getting ready to head out in our RV.

We’re not young chickens anymore. I’m not sure how old one is when they get to the point they aren’t young. It’s probably in the mind of the person more than the body. We make decisions based on our past or the past of others. The decisions based on the unknown of the future are difficult and down-right scary. Any change can be scary. We know because we’ve made scary changes before. Some we’re glad we did and others we still regret but that’s the way it goes. Hindsight is always 20-20 and there is nothing we can do about the past.

When we were deciding about hitting the road in an RV, I ran across Mark Twain’s quote. That’s why you see it every day on my blog. His quote is actually what made us think that if we didn’t hit that road then, we might always wish we had and never get a chance to.

We’ve known others who have put off retiring or even traveling until it was too late. My own parents wanted to travel but never had a chance as my mother died soon after my dad retired. If we waited too long, our someday may never come either. We loved traveling. We loved camping. In an RV we could do both. It wasn’t anything we had planned on doing for years like many people we know did.

We don’t know what is going to be around the next bend. We could have many of them in our future or there could be few. Life goes on but we have no control when those young chickens inside of us will become too old to do the things they should have done.

The timing was perfect when we pulled out. We knew we would regret it if we didn’t. Was it a good decision for us? We think it was. We love our life as it is now. We’ve found most RV’ers are pretty independent people. They like being in charge of where they’re going to go and what they’re going to do. It’s not something everyone would enjoy or adapt to. When we have to park our rig and stay in one place, we will. However, we’re going to fight it every mile of the way!

Right now we’re sitting all by ourselves in the desert. We have no one really close which is very unusual but for this day it’s nice and peaceful. What beautiful scenery we are enjoying even though the temperature isn’t quite what we’d like it to be. We’re happy.

Thank you, Mark Twain, for making us think and giving us that little push.