Tracey Carisch thought she had it all. As a wife, mother, and successful executive, she seemed to be living the modern American dream. But one night, a panic attack sent her tumbling into a midlife crisis and questioning everything. That’s when she and her husband made a decision that shocked their family and friends: they sold everything they owned, pulled their three young daughters out of school, and became a family of wandering globetrotters.

Loaded with hilarious mishaps as well as deeply meaningful revelations, Excess Baggage chronicles the Carisch family’s extraordinary eighteen-month adventure across six continents, bringing to mind the spiritual journey of Eat Pray Love and the comical mishaps of National Lampoon’s Vacation.

Through Tracey’s insightful, funny, and poignant narrative, the reader will discover the life lessons of an around-the-world journey without leaving home.

Excerpt

A highlight of our time in Norway was our trek up to Preikestolen, a flat, pillared cliff rising almost half a mile above the waters of the magnificent Lysefjord canyon. The three-hour hike up to the top was a testament to our girls’ physical endurance as well as Brian’s paternal motivational skills, which basically involved ignoring all the whining and walking thirty yards ahead of the rest of us. Despite the arduous morning required to reach it, our time on Preikestolen proved to be a breathtaking experience. Of course, for me, this was due to both the gorgeous view and the fact that air was forcefully ripped from my lungs each time one of the girls made what I considered to be a careless move that could result in her fall to a watery death. Such moves included: Running, hopping, walking, reaching for a sandwich, and turning one’s head quickly.

Somewhere around my tenth dramatic gasp, it finally occurred to me that my children aren’t lemmings and actually do possess a self-preservation instinct. I was able to put the 2000-foot sheer drop out of my mind (sort of) and enjoy the calm beauty of the experience. A warm breeze floated up the cliff’s face as I stood looking out over the deep gorge cutting through to the ocean. The sky and the water mirrored the same shade of brilliant topaz blue, and between them ran the rich, warm marbled browns of the canyon walls. I tried to imagine what the land looked like millions of years ago, before a sheet of slow-moving ice irreversibly transformed the landscape, turning it from a gentle green slope into a majestic sculpture of stone and water. Slight changes, imperceptible from one day to the next, had accumulated over time to create something extraordinary.

I took a deep breath of fresh, clean air and felt a wish form inside me—the wish that this journey would be the colossal force changing our family forever.

My shocking discovery in the first weeks of this trip (besides the $17 chicken breast at a Norwegian grocery store) was the realization that our family didn’t get along very well. At all. Our new mode of 24-7 togetherness revealed how little of it we’d had back home, where most of our waking hours had been spent separated from one another at work, school, or one of those many kid activities we rushed around to. For the first time, the girls weren’t spending their days in their own classrooms, and Brian and I weren’t heading off to our respective offices. There were no playdates or sports practices or parties with friends. It was just the five of us. Together. All. The. Time. As a result, we were getting precipitously close to strangling one another…

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About the Author

Tracey Carisch is a leadership consultant, professional speaker, and author of the book Excess Baggage: One Family’s Around the World Search for Balance. In 2014, her travel blog, www.100WaysToChangeTheWorld.com, chronicled her family’s around-the-world, nomadic journey and gained a widespread international following.

Tracey graduated from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business and began her career as a consultant with an international consulting firm, where she advanced to a leadership position within the organization’s professional education team. She received her MBA from the University of Utah in 2002 and soon began her own independent consulting business, specializing in organizational effectiveness and project management.

Her facilitation work with business-education partnerships led to a prominent position in the STEM education initiative. Tracey served as the Managing Director of the STEM Innovation Hub, collaborating with stakeholders from school systems, nonprofits, businesses, universities and government agencies to pioneer ground-breaking workforce development programs. This role engaged Tracey in the areas of education research and early learning neurology as she worked alongside pedagogical and andragogical experts to develop successful K-12 teaching strategies and adult learning initiatives.

Since returning to the United States, Tracey has expanded her leadership development career to include motivational speaking. Her presentations blend the breathtaking imagery of travel photography with important themes for parents, children, educators, and business leaders. By incorporating leadership best practices and conflict management concepts, Tracey’s talks inspire audiences while also leaving them equipped with successful practices for setting intentions and improving relationships.

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