Our Wildway Crew highlights ordinary people doing extraordinary things.
Within each of us lies the potential to live life to the fullest. We have the ability to choose our own destiny, live without fear or limits, challenge ourselves and grow, do and be whatever makes us happy. We have the ability to be free. It's how you live a Wildway of life and there are people all around us inspiring others with their actions. We want to celebrate that by highlighting and honoring those who #LiveWild. (More on that here)
Meet this week's featured Wildway Crew members:
The Benson Family
Outlook = Whatever it is that requires you to act courageously: do that.
Meet The Bensons. The Bensons sold their house, packed up their belongings, and headed abroad for a year of travel, adventure, and eye-opening experiences. Rebekah & Duane (Mom & Dad), Noah (17), Micah (12), and Ezra (8) are in the midst of their expedition and are soaking it all in. They spent some time in Guatemala, are currently in Costa Rica, and will be heading to Nicaragua next. Following their family expedition has been an absolute treat, and we think you'll agree.
Here is The Benson's story in their own words:
"So…we’re totally crazy. But if you know us, you already know this. We always have crazy ideas. Dreams, really. And sure, many of them don’t ever happen. But sometimes, some of them do…
Last summer we went on a long road trip. It was three and a half weeks of awesome! We jumped in the car and headed west- lots of driving, lots of friends, lots of amazing places and lots of amazing experiences. But most of all, it was a whole lot of spending time with our most favorite people ever- each other. It was such a great time of bonding and getting to know each other in better and new ways. None of us will ever forget that trip for as long as we live! And as we raced home to get our kids to their first day of school the next day, we joked that we should just keep traveling so the awesome didn’t have to end with mundane and routines.
It wasn't long before we decided to make that a reality.
As a family, we are currently taking 8 months to a year to travel around the world. We had this crazy idea to sell our house and stuff and to venture out for awhile. We are spending about a month in each spot getting immersed in a place. We want to show our kids that life in America isn’t normal for most people on this planet. We want to see how amazing other cultures and places are and to see how other people live. And we also want to show the kids that there are many people living in poverty and hunger and need. We really, really don’t want their only experience of extreme poverty to come from seeing hungry people far off on TV. We want them to actually see their faces. To learn their names. To hear their story, to cry with them and to hug their necks. We want it to be real and tangible. What if we could change our boys’ perspectives to see people in a different way? See how people really live around our world, not only the overly consumeristic and massively wealthy country we find ourselves in now. What if someday they wanted to do something about it?
Some of their ideas - hike Machu Picchu, have a spitting contest with a llama, eat a fresh banana, work on a coffee plantation, go spearfishing, see penguins, stay on a floating village, learn martial arts with a monk, get a jacket from an eskimo, learn to play rugby in New Zealand, go on a zipline in Costa Rica...
During one of these conversations, though, one of our kids said something that summed up our reason for attempting this crazy trip around the world. He said that what he hopes to get out of the trip is a change in character. That is so beautiful. That is my hope for us all.
We have talked much about the hardships as well. We will get dirty. We will have times when we are exhausted. We will encounter people that don't like us. We will have a lot of hard work to do in an attempt to serve others. There will be dangers. We will probably get robbed. We will get sick. There will be really scary times when we don't know what to do. After talking with the kids about these realities and asking if they STILL wanted to go, Noah said something profound. "I don't want to let fear make my decisions for me." That settled it.
There is a lot we need to see in life. A lot we need to do before this life is over. So we are headed out to see and do some of those things...you know...before we finish.
Live Wild. And take that expedition.
