All in

For years I’ve been all in. All in my family. All in my marriage. All in my career. Make no mistake, I’m not complaining. It’s fulfilling and meaningful. Objectively, I have the best family in the world. really. You can check.

There is no one like my girl (yes, we are married, but I don’t like the terms “my wife” and “my husband”). We have love, and we let each other grow individually, and we care for for each other.

My kids are the best. I have examined myself every single child, all over the world, and there are none like them. They teach me something new about me and them every day, and I try to give them back as much as I can.

There is no profession like mine. seriously. Social work, in case you were wondering. A profession that is all about giving, and value, and diversity. For the past 6 years I have been in a position where I work with children who are victims of domestic violence, and children who were sexually abused. Before that, I worked at the Social Welfare Bureau with families, and before that at a hostel for people with autism. The work is hard and abrasive, but diverse and full of meaning, which is what matters. What is also important is that it is a job that allows me to balance work and family, and I spend every day at home with my family in the afternoon, unlike many other fathers around me.

But still, I was missing something. There is a catch in all this goodness.

Hanging in there, without oxygen

For several months, at age 36, I began to feel that I had no air. Because I was all in, I kind of forgot who I was. True, I had some great overseas travels with friends, but for years I didn’t have a significant moment of silence with myself, cut off from noises. Who am I? What do I like to do? What motivates me? What future do I want to create for myself and my family?

In the midst of all this, my wife also began to take a leap forward, grow and flourish with the fulfillment of an old dream. She opened a clinic and began providing emotional therapy through cognitive-behavioral method and other tools. I see her blossom, with a twinkle in her eyes. On one hand it makes me feel so good to see her like that, fulfilling a dream, and on the other hand it also gives me a simple insight that showed me that I was stepping on the spot. For a long time. Far from fulfilling dreams.

Dreams in the drawer

I longed for the time when I traveled alone in India. Freedom, in-depth conversations with new people from Israel and the world, disconnected from the net and everybody i know, the silence, and, well, the loneliness too. I recalled how much I loved traveling, how much I loved the adventure and the unknown, and how many years I had not embarked on such an adventure. For years I’ve been reading travelers’ blogs from all over the world, and felt jealous. At first I read them because we had a dream about flying to India with the children for a few months, maybe a year. This dream was postponed due to the birth of our little daughter, and it will come true one day. But I find myself still reading travel blogs. One about a mom traveling alone, and one who left high-tech and making a living from her blog, one a single mom with 3 kids who travels several times a year, and one who has been on the trip for years.

Understand myself

Slowly, I began to realize that this was what I needed, at least as a first step. I need time with myself detached from everything I know, on one hand. On the other, connected and open, to myself and to the world. And I want it to become a lifestyle. A lifestyle that will allow me to stay connected to myself. Understand myself, what I want to do in the world down the road, but at the same time continue to be all in my relationships, family, and career. I want to travel the world. I don’t want to wait for retirement. I don’t want to settle for one trip a year. I want to travel solo, and travel with my spouse, and travel with the kids, and travek with friends. I also want to change the world, but that’s for another post.

So I waited for a quiet moment with my girl. We went out to a restaurant, and before that I took her to sit on the edge of the Ein Izrael spring to talk a little. It sounds pastoral and romantic, but in reality there were a bunch of noisy teenagers on one edge, and a bunch of men who decided to enjoy their time with full Volume music from their car. If only they played some rock songs, but they put music I hate. Nevermind. We got over the music and yet we sat on the edge of the spring, pouring my heart out. I shared everything I wrote here, more or less, and what I wanted to do, and she fully understood. She gave me her blessing. Did i mention how lucky am I?

Inspiration

I know how to write. It’s hard for me to recognize a lot of the talents I have. It’s hard for me to recognize a lot of things I know how to do at a level I know to teach them, but writing I know. Emotional writing, writing from the guts, and this is a gift I want to give to the world.

So on July 2019, a few days after buying my first ticket for my first solo trip since India, I decided to open a blog. With the combination of my love of traveling and writing, a blog is the obvious result of the journey I am going through now. This blog is primarily intended to inspire people like me. Family men and women who can’t take a backpack now, leave everything, and go on a one-way ticket. But they can pack a bag and travel for a few days to reconnect with themselves and the world. Yes, I will also address the practical side of things, and try to give tools how to travel cheap and still have fun, but first and foremost I will try to inspire you through my experiences in the world. The blog is (still?) not my job, and as I said, I am still all in my relationship, family, and full time job. So I don’t have the intention and ability to travel every month, but I will try to fill it with content between every trip.

I decided to call the blog “Dad Traveling Solo” because that’s it’s uniqueness. I’m sure there are others like me, but I personally don’t know any more fathers who integrate solo travels around the world in their everyday lives. So I will try to inspire you through my solo travels, but not only. I will share with you all kinds of travels. I might also share with you my thoughts on life as a father, and life in general. We’ll see. My head is still full of ideas and thoughts. Now it’s time to take off.

Who am I anyway?

Look, I went on and on about myself but I didn’t tell you the dry details about me. So hey, I’m Yoav Gosh. Married to Adi, and Father to 9-year-old Danielle, 6-year-old Jordan, and 2-year-old Gili. I live in Ramat Yishai, Israel. I’m a vegetarian who makes a big effort to be as vegan as possible (I believe that a 100 years from now people won’t understand how we ate animals, like today we don’t believe how people were other people’s property). I have a strong desire to change the world, or at least leave it in better shape, I love music (quite stuck in the nineties and early millennium, but happy about it), love good conversation, love nature, love reading, love freedom, love philosophy, love history, and love people.

I really invite you to give me a feedback on the blog and in general. About the design, the content, the bugs. I built this blog from scratch, all by myself, with no experience in site building. So I know there is still much room for improvement, and that improvement will also come thanks to your feedback.

That’s it. Now come on, let’s take off. Let’s fly away from here.

Follow me on Facebook and Instagram too.