Hi, I’m Brandon Pearce. In 2009, my family and I were living in suburban America, happy enough, but feeling somewhat stagnant in our personal growth.
We felt weighed down by the consumerist focus of our culture, busy with responsibilities and expectations that left us more drained than fulfilled. Looking ahead, we just saw more of the same, with maybe a bigger house and a newer car. But we knew that these things wouldn’t add more meaning to our lives.
Something inside was telling us there is more to life than the bubble of reality we were experiencing, and we wanted to grow and see the world from a different perspective.
When my wife’s mother passed away from cancer at the age of 50, it was a wake-up call that showed us how short life can be. We decided to begin living life to the fullest NOW, while we still had the chance.
I had been creating an online business for several years called Music Teacher’s Helper. As it grew, I was able to quit my programming job and stop teaching piano lessons. Not being bound to any location for work, we chose to sell our house and all our “stuff”, worldschool our kids, and travel the world together as a catalyst for personal growth and new experiences as a family. This blog is about our adventures and what we’ve learned in the process.
Over the course of 11 years, we visited over 45 countries, starting with Costa Rica, where our third daughter, Aysia, was born. We volunteered at rescue centers and schools, experienced some of the earth’s most inspiring natural and man-made wonders, visited with people from all walks of life, and stayed in accommodations from people’s floors and run-down hostels to 5-star resorts on private islands.
We attended retreats, conferences, classes, and camps (and later, ran conferences and retreats ourselves). We had a several major identity crises along with relationship challenges that have driven us to dive deep into our own pasts and psyches to understand better who we are, what we believe, and what we want to contribute to the world.
Traveling and living abroad has been an enriching and life-changing experience for our family. But it’s also been exhausting and humbling. We’ve enjoyed learning about other cultures and languages, and our minds have been opened and expanded through the new ideas, friends, and various challenges we’ve encountered. We’ve also grown closer together as a family and as individuals than we would have if we had just stayed home where everything was familiar. At the same time, we’ve often felt that moving around so frequently has kept us from going deeper into local communities. And while we’ve formed many deep connections with friends very quickly, we usually have to to say goodbye sooner than we’d like.
Over the years, we’ve established longer-term home bases in a few different communities as we’ve attempted to settle into more fully. Our favorites so far have been Ubud, Bali, Indonesia; San Miguel de Allende, Mexico; Victoria, British Columbia, Canada; and Greenville, South Carolina. While we have learned to be “at home” anywhere in the world, we’re continuing to experiment with the location of our physical home.
All through this, it’s been a journey of discovering how to live life to the fullest, to practice savoring every moment while it lasts, and to seek new ways to learn, grow, connect, and create.
Because my business is online and managed by a great team, we have the freedom to travel and live where we choose, and to do what we want with the majority of our time. We feel very fortunate to have this opportunity, and it’s something we’ve worked hard for years to achieve. But family travel can be done at any budget level, and I hope this website will be an inspiration to those interested in the journey.
When we travel, we’re not just sightseeing. We try to experience “living” in a new place. I still fill my time with creative pursuits, reading and writing, working on passion projects, dining with friends, creating music, being with my kids, and practicing enjoying each moment to the fullest. Everyone has different goals and desires, and a different idea of what constitutes a full and happy life. This website charts our journey of living the life of our dreams. I hope it helps you to live yours.
Brandon Pearce and family
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Brandon grew up in Salt Lake City, studied music and computer programming, and later launched an online business for music teachers. He enjoys travel, entrepreneurship, photography, reading, music, technology, mindfulness, and spending time with friends and family.
Jennifer is the master mom. She enjoys singing and taking voice lessons, cooking amazing creations with mind-boggling resourcefulness, writing captivating posts for the blog, and taking care of her sweet family. She is also a certified High-performance coach.
Emily is 16 years old, and is a passionate and talented film maker, musician, artist, and animator. She is also passionate about the environment. She has created several documentary projects, has her music on iTunes and Spotify, and runs her own successful video editing business, Crystal Cut Studios.
Marie, 14 years old, loves aerial silks and 3D modeling and animation with Cinema4D. She also enjoys reading, acting, clowning (and knows how to juggle), art, playing the harp, and making people laugh. She loves playing with friends and chatting with them across the world via Skype.
Aysia is 9 years old, and has been traveling ever since she was born in Costa Rica. She brings so much joy to our family, with her empathetic hugs and contagious giggles. She is passionate about ballet (Russian method), loves exploring new places, making art, and playing with family and friends.
We have stopped running our Family Adventure Summit event (and all other events) and are trying out a more settled lifestyle in the United States. Jennifer is still offering High Performance Coaching and Emily is still doing video editing. And we’re seeing how life unfolds within and around us in this next phase of our journey.
Here are links to some articles that explain more of what we’re about:
Here are a few interviews that summarize more about our story, our process, our values, and our lifestyle. Note: We are currently NOT doing more interviews, as we’re focusing our attention elsewhere.
These haven’t been updated in a while, but our two oldest girls wrote a little bit on blogs as they were growing up traveling.
