As soon as the check got approved, we simply looked at our banking app in silence. There was $250,000 waiting for us.
The last thing my parents gave me was this exercise book. We were told to save as much money as possible and not take vacations, all so we could give it to our children once we died.
However, as soon as my wife looked at me, she wondered what would happen if we stopped.
It doesn’t happen in a cold and self-centered way. Of course, we love our kids very much. We do. Deeply. Even so, I taught them to work and make their own choices on how to live. And truthfully? We spent the majority of our lives putting ourselves on the back burner.
Their motivation did not come from their finances. It was focused on what we went through.
Because of this, we decided to buy a camper.
Just a enough for sleeping, for use in the kitchen, and to watch sunsets while traveling from state to state. We started to organize the National Parks system. We had to find our way after getting lost many times. Nearby there were no cell towers to interrupt the natural sky above, so we enjoyed our wine. We learned to be ourselves instead of only living up to the roles of Mom and Dad.
Funny enough, this happens all the time.
Our kids did not react angrily when they heard the news. They really started laughing.
Our son suggested we should use it to buy something. There is more to your accomplishments than having to pay bills and watch your kids.
So looking at this, taken in Montana I believe, we admit we’re breathing better than we did before we took these risks.
We didn’t only receive money when we inherited from our relative.
It made available a precious amount of time.
It allowed us to enjoy our life more openly than before. With every mile behind us, we realized that our camper gave us a chance to enjoy freedom after years of hard work. Going without knowing the exact destination made traveling more freeing for me.
To begin with, putting our own needs first seemed a bit different. It kept going through my mind how we could have helped the kids more. It wouldn’t have been a bad idea to set some cash aside for their education or show them how to buy a house in their first years. Yet, this was simply incorrect because they were handling it all quite well by themselves. While our daughter started working for herself, our son was doing well in his job and enjoying every project he took on. We couldn’t help these people move up in society.
For years, we paid little attention to what we wanted while focusing on our kids’ wants.
We spent a lot of days traveling through deserts, forests, mountains, and valleys, alone as a couple, taking trips down memory lane before we became parents. We enjoyed singing old songs from the radio, stopped for lunch at country diners, and hiked trails that really surprised us. Our talks made it seem like we were getting to know each other again and uncovering all the things we treasured in one another. Getting the camper was not the main goal; it brought us even closer as a couple.
On a previous evening after going on a hike in a National Park, we parked the camper by a lake. As the sun went down, orange and purple colors appeared in the sky. We both dug into a bottle of wine while sharing the peace of the evening with one another.
I hadn’t realized how much we had missed it, and my wife said softly, as she ran her fingers around the edge of her wine glass. We have placed most of our attention on everyone else. I could not remember the feeling of being together as we used to be.”
I looked out and answered, “I know.” However, it’s very amusing, right? I used to think that providing our children with every chance possible was the sign of being good parents. Recently, I began to question that idea. Perhaps all we had to do was think about ourselves as well as the people around us.
The delight of being together and admiring the view simply came to us, in silence. Things happened slowly and naturally. No deadlines. Two people, in the middle of emptiness, with the world right in front of us.
However, here’s where things changed in a surprising way.
Around the middle of our trip, we found a stop in a tiny Wyoming town. I wasn’t sure it existed until I happened to look for it, in between great expanses of countryside. Mae, the owner of the diner, was with us the whole conversation over breakfast. Right away, I could feel like we’d always known one another, not someone we had just met.
Mae explained her life, the hardships she had struggled with, and her dreams to us while we were enjoying a cup of coffee. Sticking close to her little town, after looking after friends and family and shoppers seemed natural, but it did not mean she did not yearn to see faraway destinations and new places.
By listening for such a long time, we noticed something important. Since then, we kept traveling coast to coast to watch the sunset, and Mae, who had so much to add to our life, remained unhappy, waiting for the life she’d paused.
Those thoughts were very frustrating for us. Money was supposed to let us enjoy life, but could it do more for us? Maybe it could guide someone like Mae to reach her dreams?
After we talked about it in the evening, we visited Mae’s diner on the following day. We let her know we wanted to assist her in living the way we were able to. We didn’t have a big plan, and didn’t know what would happen, but we gave Juana some of the money we got from the inheritance. Not a huge quantity, yet it enabled her to have a short vacation, see the world away from the diner, and find out more about herself.
At first, she did not know what to say since she was too proud, so we insisted that she should take it. You have always been selflessly caring for those around you. This is the time to make choices that are just for you.
She agreed with tears in her eyes. Over these a few months, Mae sent us postcards from across the country full of sights she couldn’t have imagined and things she never would have imagined doing. I found it the most heartwarming experience to see someone finally overcome the obstacles they made for themselves.
Many other people felt the effects of what happened to Mae as well. Seeing what we did with our inheritance, our children started viewing their own lives differently. Being encouraged by Mae’s actions, our son left work for a year so he could go on a journey and take pictures of places around the world. Since she is a driven person, our daughter looked into how she could incorporate her work with helping people in need.
Surprisingly, a few months after we found out about her fiancé, we realized Mae was starting a non-profit in her town to encourage others with undone dreams. She spent our money to travel, but mainly to help others enjoy the kind of life they always wanted.
The best part of all is Many people in the town heard Mae’s story. Individuals who hardly believed in self-improvement began to try things and pursue what they wanted. One little action catalyzed a series of changes that reached out to many people we had not imagined.
At the end of the day, our freedom was more than just what our inheritance gave us. Now, thanks to volunteering, we could do something special not just for ourselves, but also for other people too. We did not want to keep the money for ourselves; we wanted to use it to do more than what we could without it.
I was reminded that kindness doesn’t only mean giving away a lot of money. At times, all someone needs is for someone else to recognize their abilities and help them realize them, too.
This life lesson teaches us that you can’t help or support others unless you take care of yourself too. At times, it is necessary to take care of yourself first so that you are able to help others. But the real happiness is found when you understand that giving isn’t only about money; it’s about spending time and helping others choose their path.
While we travel further, I keep thinking about the transformations we have gone through after that check was deposited. Besides the money, Dad also left us the possibility to live for a reason, support others, and use the time wisely.
When offered a chance to assist, just keep in mind that it’s what your gift does, not the size of the gift that matters.
Share this story with a friend if what you read made you inspired. Let’s help encourage more good cheer by sharing our stories with each other.