Hey, friends. So this is a different sort of episode I have for you today. It's not a tutorial or a how to or the topics I usually cover. It's actually a little bit more related to what we chatted about on a previous episode a few weeks ago about opting out of systems.

So I shared in that episode the four systems that Christian and I have opted out of that has really changed our life massively over the last 15 years.

And we had an experience a little over a week ago that was pretty interesting and it kind of underscored some of the things I talked about in that season and gave Christian and I a chance to explore a system that we really hadn't thought we could opt out of prior.

So anyway, I just want to share that story with you and I think there'll be pieces of this that you can take and apply to where you are right now, whether you're looking at how can I grow more of my own food or how can I opt out of traditional education or traditional employment systems.

And yeah, so here we go.

You're listening to the old-fashioned on-purpose podcast where ambitious people master the art of returning to their roots.

Have you found yourself disenchanted with society or wishing you could opt out of the rat race? Perhaps you're craving a life that's meaningful and tangible a life where you can create and produce instead of merely consume.

I am Jill Winger, best-selling author and long-time home center. Over the last 10 years, I have helped thousands of families create or connection grow amazing organic food and find the ultimate fulfillment through an old-fashioned lifestyle and I can do the same for you.

Now on to our episode.

Okay, so it all started a couple weeks ago. Well, before that, I've been planning on going to the Home Setters of America conference for quite a few months since the beginning of the year.

So I knew this trip was coming. I went in 2019 for the first time. It was a great event and they didn't have it in 2020. So I was excited to be asked back to speak this year.

So this conference is in front of Virginia. So that's quite a long ways away from us here in Wyoming, the other end of the world, basically.

And so obviously we're going to fly. We always fly when we're going that far away. And I had a plane tickets books a little bit in advance. I'm not great with like super far out booking because I just know there's too many variables to have things locked in like six months out.

I think it was like a month and a half before the trip. I got our tickets bought and Christian had planned to go with me and our oldest Mesa. We tried to take her this time because we took our son last time just so they could have a little one on one time.

So anyway, we were getting ready. We're doing all the things for us to leave on vacation, which is no small feat. People ask, how do you do it? How do you go on vacation as a home stutter? And I don't know. It's hard.

Not just the home setting, but the home schooling and the home business and all of the things we have going. It takes a village, basically, for us to leave. We had my mother-in-law staying here with our other two children.

We had our hired man keeping things going and helping with feeding and chores. We had our manager and our employees at the soda fountain handling that. So like there was a whole team of people here at home keeping things running for us.

Totally is off topic has nothing to do with this episode, but I just wanted to tell you that since we're talking about leaving. But anyway, so we flew out on a Wednesday, my pre-compens workshop was a Thursday, and then the rest of the conference started after that.

And before we got on the plane, I was getting ready and packing. I just was really dreading flying. I'm not scared of flying. I've flown a lot. When we were doing a lot of doTERRA stuff, we were traveling constantly all over the world.

So any anxiety I had in the past over air travel was gone. I'm very used to it. I can navigate airports in my sleep. But I just was really dreading this trip. And it has a lot to do with that idea of opting out of systems.

You know, as I've shared in a previous episode, we've opted out of a lot of systems in our lives, but naturally flying or public transportation and this avenue is somewhere that we're still participating in.

Like most other people, because we kind of told ourselves, well, obviously we can't drive from Wyoming to Virginia. Like no one does that. That's ridiculous.

...