World Shortest Fairy Tale

Once upon a time, a girl asked a guy, "Will you marry me?"

The guy said, "NO!"

And the guy lived happily ever after and rode motorcycles and went fishing and hunting and played golf a lot and drank and scotch and left the toilet seat up and farted whenever he wanted.

THE END



A friend sent me that a while after I got back from my last bike trip, it cracked me up.

For some semi-serious advice, it can be very hard to choose between the predicable reality of the known and the endless promise of the unknown. One is a fairly predictable path of a life with a person you have grew with for a few years and the other is the unknown outcome of a path with no clear direction.

Rarely do people regret the learning and changes that come from such a long journey.

Occasionally they do regret the cost of the journey, which is usually a relationship.

A good place to start is to question how important is she to you. The people here will be able to provide some insight into how important their trips have been to them. From there you get to make the unenviable task of determining whether the cost is worth the benefit.

aahhh, bliss!!

actually, i am living exactly how the guy lived after he says no, however, my answer was yes. i dont play golf, dont like it, futball instead.

so, i think it depands wheter you find the right one or not!

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ozhan u.
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I was 34 when faced with some thing similar. My vote, go ride. You are quite right in thinking you may not do it otherwise. Good luck what ever you decide.

I would say GO riding, specially now that you now have the opportunity. She will wait for you if she really loves you, if not, the relation was not meant to be anyway.

I wish now that I took the time to do the things I really wanted before the kids, and mortgages, insurances, taxes, houses, moves, etc... Life is too short, and youth is shorter.

thank you all for your responses and by all means keep them coming my ears are wide open. i think that the overwhelming statement being made is that opportunity can sometimes knock only once. i am truely grateful for all of your words and take them all into consideration, i have alot of pondering to do over the next 15 months as well as preparation if i decide to go. i will keep you informed until then feel free to speak your minds
cheers
josh

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"imagine all the people sharing all the world"

Dusty,

The fact that you consider the possibility that you may meet a woman who likes bikes and has similar interests says much about your real feelings. If the woman you are with is the love of your life you wouldn't be thinking about whether it is possible to find something better, but rather about how to keep her AND have your trip. I have seen many people stay together because they didn't think they could find anyone better and have been tempted to do so myself. It would not have worked out for me and I don't think it has for them either. Just a suggestion...my fiance has agreed to my 16 month bike trip on the grounds that he gets to take vacations and fly to visit me in exotic locales.


Cheers,
Tina

i wish that she would be understanding of it. but how it boiled down was i told her about my idea and asked her if she would go i would take care of everything for her, even go so far as to buy her a bike and put the trip off for a few extra months to pay it off. she said she had no desire to go, we had tried short trips in the past and she just didnt enjoy the camping or bike for extended periods of time. i asked her if she would wait for me and she said she wanted to move on in our relationship and start a family and buy a house (we are supposed to be moving to colorado) and that if i did this that she didnt think she could wait. i guess we just dont have many interests in common. but dont think im bad mouthing her by anymeans, she is a wonderful, caring and loving person, funny and beautiful. so unfortunately she kind of laid it on the line for me
cheers
josh

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"imagine all the people sharing all the world"

If you second guess whichever choice you end up making, you'll always regret it in some way.

If she is worth spending the rest of your life with, you should be discussing it with her, and trying to convey your concerns (now you have an easy link to send her after writing it up so well ).

If you choose the relationship path, it will always be a compromise of some sort with another person who has perhaps slightly different desires. If it's a completely disagreeable scenario, like you hate kids and her life's goal is to be a mommy to a litter of them, that's going to be problematic. If you can make it quite known to her that you intend to take month-long trips or some such, but would always be happily hanging your hat at home with her, that might be helpful.

Perhaps just letting her know that you intend to make this sort of dream trip a reality at some point down the line. If you're willing to put it off for a while to be with her, perhaps she would be willing to let you go do it once you're all settled in and you're ready to do it.

You have to have a pretty good inkling of why you want things in life, too. Only you will really know what will make you "happy", and it will only mean that to you. Everyone is different. If you just want to run away from something, that tends to never work out too well (wherever you go, there you are). But there's certainly nothing at all wrong with the long-term travel scenario done for healthy reasons. And same applies to the other choice, of course.

There'd be a manual if we all wanted the same things, but we all get to basically make it up as we go with what we know. Whatever choice you end up making, make it decisively, and do not regret the choice. Regret won't change the choice you made later on down the road (barring discovery of time-travel, of course), and it would serve no purpose other than to harsh whatever situation you found yourself in at that point.


You weren't expecting an easy answer, were you?