Look out Shirley Valentine, my hero, Debbie LaFleiche is downsizing her home to supersize her life.  I am on a quest for a life filled with adventure, creativity, fun, freedom and water as deep as forever.  Come along for the ride.  Join the journey.

I wrote that a month ago at the end of the inaugural post of this website/blog.  Since then, I’ve thought a lot about the idea of water as deep as forever.  What does it mean?  Literally, of course, it’s gibberish.  There is no such thing as water as deep as forever.

I think it’s the idea of a whole world being open, filled with potential and possibilities.  It’s about being the conductor of one’s own life, not a passenger along for the ride.  It’s about acknowledging we only get this one life and recognizing every single day we make choices about how we live it.

For me, right now, it is synonymous with a Supersize LIFE.  It’s not simply the road less traveled but about being vulnerable and unafraid of the unknown.  It’s embracing change and being willing to be spontaneous and impulsive.

And not one single trait on the list above comes natural to me.  Not one.  This is going to take work!  For me, a Supersize LIFE is more than 9 to 5, more than retiring with one million dollars.  It’s about getting rid of the long list of “should be” and “should have” in my head.  A Supersize LIFE just isn’t big, it’s full.  And, it is about doing it all despite the fact I’m terrified to my marrow.

So what can you expect from this blog and from me as this scary exciting adventure begins?  First and foremost, I hope to entertain, to inform and to engage.  But I also hope to inspire and encourage you to supersize your life.  What ever that may mean for you.  It’s not about doing what I am doing.  It’s about finding what gives you tickles inside your belly, finding your own version of the quest for water as deep as forever.

I’m still many months away from hitting the road and I’m sure what I’ll be writing about when that time comes will be very different from what this blog is about now.  For now, it is all about the planning and preparation for the journey of a lifetime, or at least the journey of my lifetime.  From here until I leave, I will post every Monday morning.  Here’s what you can expect:

1. The first Monday of each month I will post a Listicle.  A listicle is a fun-to-say word that means a list found on the internet.  Since I’m a list-maker, it only makes sense to have it this category.  Still wondering what a listicle looks like?   Two of my favorite are Fulltime RVing: The First 100 Days by The Lady is a Tramp and 10 Thing I Wish I’d Known Before Fulltime RVing from Wheeling It.
2. You can’t have a website with the first two words being Downsize Living without a category about getting rid of a lifetime of possessions.  Downsizing will be the second Monday of each month.  This is not a how-to category.  But this category is a little tribute to the things I have loved and the story behind them.  No matter how much affection I have for my possessions, there isn’t room for them to come with me on this next chapter of my life.
3. The third Monday of each month (and the fifth Monday for the months with five) I am calling Logistics.  It’s a catch-all category but mostly it will be about all the aspects of planning and preparing to get on the road.  It’ll include personal updates as well as general information about RVs and RV living.
4. Finally, Finances will be the fourth Monday of each month.  The name speaks for itself.  I intend for the category to be extremely broad and include everything from budgeting to choosing a credit card to working on the road.  Since it is the middle of August as I wrap up this five-post launch series of Supersize LIFE, the calendar is such that Finances will be the first post-launch blog.  Come back next week to read Funding a Supersize Life.

How thrilling!  Here we are at the fifth and final post to launch this blog.  What I have tried to do in the launch is answer those journalist tenets: who, what, where, when and why.  When I first started writing I thought I could introduce myself and this blog in a single post.  Then I decided it had to be two.  The writing was a jumbled mess, more than two posts could manage.  So I settled on five.

What I’ve come to realize is that introductions are hard. Explaining who you are and why you want to change your whole life isn’t easy to do in a couple thousand words.  I don’t know, maybe it’s not even easy in a couple ten thousand words.

And I suspect I don’t fully comprehend all the reasons myself yet.  I only know I must do it.  Like this journey, figuring out the why is going to be a process.  I hope you’ll come along for the ride.  Please sign up to get on my email list and you’ll be notified each time a new blog post is up.

I want to take a moment to say thank you for making the launch of this website such a success, for making me feel so welcomed and encouraged both as a blogger and as someone taking her first steps on a new journey.  I am humbled and so unbelievably grateful.