I feel like an outlier in my views of Covid. I don’t want to seem insincere or unsympathetic to the massive suffering and loss that has occurred over the last 14 months. Far from it. I lost my grandmother and Melissa lost her father, while we remained isolated from family in Canada. None of this has been easy and I understand the position of privilege that has allowed us to experience Covid differently than most. However, personally, the main theme I will take from Covid is one of a positive family experience. As I sit here banging out my thoughts my boys are entering hour 3 of fantastic cooperative play. The past 14 months has illuminated how comfortable we are as a family, united, and taught us that we really enjoy being together. The boys are, without a doubt, much closer and enjoy each other enormously. My relationship with Melissa remains as strong as ever. We’ve had much tougher tests and, honestly, Covid has not been a challenge for our relationship.

I’m heartened by witnessing how close Oliver and Elliott have become. They can play together for hours and hours. They’ve improved their conflict resolution enormously. Melissa and I have also learned when we need to intervene in their squabbles: rarely. The hands off approach, borne from exhaustion and neglect rather than high performance parenting, has allowed the boys to become more independent as well. All of this reinforces our decision to make this big life change. No matter how hard we will work to seek out kid boats in each new harbor there will be long stretches of isolated family time. The fact that we’ve thrived in similar circumstances over the last year bodes well for our success in transitioning to an itinerant lifestyle aboard a small boat. I’m so exited for our future.