Back

Follow Your Dreams, They know the way

Cecilie Conrad·Jan 22, 2021· 3 minutes

The dream became a plan, the plan became a to-do list – we bought a bus, rebuilt it and finally, we did the transit into full-time in the summer of 2018.

Ten years ago, I had just survived cancer. We were a post-cancer family, living with the fear of the disease coming back. We were wrecked, tired, walking slowly, breathing, staying connected, slowly recovering – we had no idea what just hit us and how we would react.

Though… We knew we wanted to be survivors, we wanted post-traumatic growth, not stress. We wanted to overcome this, we wanted to heal all of the wounds and find our way. Living so close to the edge of total disaster, thought us to dream.

The thing is: If you let go of your dreams, you let go of your heart. Even in the darkest of life, we need to hold on to what feels right, what we know we want, what makes our eyes radiate and our stomach warm and ready.

So we kept dreaming, and we dreamt of more freedom, of freedom to be together always, of unschooling the children while traveling the world, of having multiple income streams so we would not be vulnerable economically.

We dreamt of walking in nature together, of never again living a full Nordic winter in Denmark. We dreamt of swimming in the Mediterranean, of speaking at least five languages, of having friends and bases all around the world, of living in a tiny home on wheels, of living to the fullest.

It was a crazy dream. It was out of reach. And then we had a fourth child. He was a miracle, an angel, the light coming back to our life. He was a blessing, and we dreamt on. We bought a converted van, took baby steps, re-converted it to our liking, did a lot of weekends and small trips of 2-3 weeks when possible.

Fast forward five years and I was declared cancer-free, we started traveling even more. We became much more focused: If I were to live, we wanted to do it in sunlight, in happiness, together, to the fullest.

We talked for thousands of hours about how and when we would do it and in the end, we set a date: The dream became a plan, the plan became a to-do list – we bought a bus, rebuilt it and finally, we did the transit into full-time in the summer of 2018.

Now – We no longer look back.

We look at our dreams. They know the way.

And we move on from our hearts.

Every day.

Always

May the sun shine on you.

Cecilie-Underskrift-300x133

Cecilie Conrad

Four long-time unschoolers, Sarah Beale, Luna Maj Vestergaard, Carla Martinez, and Sara Beale, join forces and dive deep into the world of unschoolin…Read more
The sunshine in the garden, the writing explosion, the driving, the arrival in sisterhood, the laughter. Perfect. Just perfect. Read more
Learn Nothing Day combined with my genuine shock reaction to a new-to-me three-letter diagnosis inspired this text about leaving children be, accepti…Read more
Martin’s family introduced us to Wilderness Wood, a beautiful project close to where they live, where home-educated children take classes in woodwork…Read more
Last year just around this time, we did not make it to England. Paperwork not in order. We had another great summer adventure, and it was all good. B…Read more
Moving through the day, we had to get practical things done and place the vehicles at the station for campers, watch a documentary, and go for a walk…Read more
I am unsure why I keep writing these small stories about our travels. Some days it seems like an unnecessary chore. Writing every day about what happ…Read more
All the little things. The little things that are actually big. We did them. All day long and very far into the late evening. So it goes sometimes. …Read more
This time we had a plan! No loud music, no big crowds. We went out to see the Gentfest, but the focus was to find street artists, street musicians, s…Read more