11 May Forging a New Path
By Katie Day
I am a wife, mother, entrepreneur and lover of travel. I have a 10-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son. I was married as a young adult, so let us just say I have been married for a while. I have had my own business, a corporate meeting planning company, for 15 years.
On paper, I sound pretty typical, right?
Nine months before the pandemic hit, my husband and I realized we were tired of the Dallas Bubble and wanted to teach our kids about our country. So, we started working to do something that everyone around us thought was crazy: We put our house on the market, started reducing our worldly possessions with a goal that we’d fit everything into a small storage unit and purchased a 31-foot Winnebago motorhome.
In those early months of travel prep, every time I heard that what we were doing was “interesting” or got a disapproving look, I repeated to myself that everything kept falling into place because of God’s timing and the doors were being opened for our family to take this adventure together. It was sometimes hard, though; the number of crazy looks outweighed the excitement from others—by a lot.
I also kept leaning into my self-knowledge: I absolutely love to travel, even just from Dallas to Austin. I like road trips and flights—though not cruises, since I get motion sickness. But, really, any kind of travel—call me; I can be your travel buddy. And I knew I wanted my children to see other parts of our country. There is so much more outside of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex that is their hometown.
Sure, they’ve taken some fun trips in their few years on this planet, but what we had in mind was different. We planned to settle in cities for weeks at a time and really see and experience what the locals do, how they live.
The other thing that kept pulling me forward in prepping for our journey was the time it would allow us as a family. When I checked our schedules on the weekends, they were packed with sports, birthday parties, practices, family get-togethers and just general errands. I knew that I could not be a happy person if I felt stretched too thin getting our kids to and through all of those obligations without any real downtime to just be together as a family.
As you can imagine, our time now is very much together time. I am now a teacher, nurse, friend, playmate, principal, maid and mom to my kids. There are some pluses and minuses to the situation. But there would have been if we were riding out the pandemic in Dallas, too.
Truthfully, I have had some very bad parenting moments on this trip. It has pushed my limits on what I can handle as a mom. I’ve looked to my mom friends, my sister and my own mother to ask for help in working through problems with my children. Now I’m thankful for these opportunities because it has shown me things in myself that I need and want to work on as well as things about my children that could be improved upon. There have been some wonderful, deep conversations with my children and my husband.
And time slows down when you are out exploring together, daily.
I also never imagined I’d be celebrating my company’s 15th anniversary during a world pandemic. Even though my business was well-established, operating during a global pandemic was like starting over from scratch. We went from a 10-person team planning and executing corporate events to a team of five waiting around for a year, hoping events would come back—from a calendar full of events to zero.
My role in the business is to manage the money. Seeing our events drop off and realizing that we had to release half the team—and then reduce pay for everyone else—was not just stressful; it was heartbreaking. We decided early in the pandemic the name of the game was “be the last one standing” and to do whatever it took to stay in business. We made many excruciating decisions about how to cut costs and stay out of debt. We gratefully used Paycheck Protection Program funds, and we convinced a handful of customers to pivot with us to virtual events.
Keep in mind that we actually launched our adventure and hit the road halfway into the pandemic, and you can imagine how many people thought we were bananas. I never had any doubt about still taking the trip while trying to keep the business going. I thought the timing was perfect! Everyone else was working remotely, and now I could truly work remotely, too.
Traveling while working has helped me grow by learning to be more flexible; my calendar and to-do list used to rule my life. Now, I’m 100 percent okay with what I’m able to get done in a day, and I don’t apologize or feel unsuccessful when some of the items on my to-do list aren’t checked off.
I can honestly say that I’m excited to see people beginning to meet in person again; it makes me optimistic and hopeful that we can get back at our pre-pandemic level of operations. But I won’t be the same pre-pandemic professional—or mom.
We also know our family travel plans will come to an end sooner or later. I am so thankful for the time we’ve had together. We’ve learned more than I could have ever thought possible during this year on the road. And, like the rest of the world, we’re excited about forging a new path.
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Before launching Meritage Events in 2005, Katie Day entered the world of event production working in sales for a high-end rental company. She earned her chops as the director of Destination Management for a large Dallas planning house, and then further honed her event production skills with years of managing media, corporate and charity events at a luxury publication. She’s a member of the Society for Incentive Travel Excellence (SITE) and the Association of Destination Management Executives International (ADMEI). Pre-pandemic, Katie loved volunteering at her children’s school. She loves travel adventures and fancy tea service.
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