I’m Quitting My Job to Travel!

Yes, you read that right. I’m quitting my job to travel! I’m quitting my stable job as a lawyer here in Raleigh, North Carolina to travel the world on my own. I’ve been dreaming of this day for a while, plotting and planning for over a year to make it happen. I’m very excited about my future travels, and I’m heading off next month. Ahhh, it feels good to finally be able to tell everybody.

Is this the most typical millennial post ever? (See here, here, and here if you don’t believe that it’s a thing nowadays.) Maybe, but I don’t care. I’m doing it because I want to. I REALLY want to.

Now you know what I’ve been saving money for…

I realize this confession comes with a lot of questions from those who haven’t traveled long-term. Or those who have no desire to do so. Or those that are just curious. I’ve already encountered quite a lot of them. In this post, I’ll try to answer some of the most common questions I’ve received thus far from friends, acquaintances, and co-workers.

Wait, why? Have you always wanted to travel?

I’ve always liked to travel, but relatively recently I have become totally obsessed with the idea of traveling long-term. It’s hard to say exactly when this plan began forming.

Maybe I got some inkling of it in Argentina when I learned that my British roommate had been all over the world and I had yet to scratch the surface. I learned that taking a “gap year” to travel was common, though not so much in the US.

I guess I truly got the idea stuck in my head after my trip to Thailand. Seriously, a twenty hour flight to Asia will make you re-think your two or three weeks of annual vacation. That’s just not enough time to go everywhere I want to go and do everything I want to do (not to mention eat everything I want to eat!).

Amidst my research on Southeast Asia, I stumbled upon several travel blogs out there written by folks who were successfully traveling long-term. Because once you’re halfway around the world, doesn’t it make sense to hop from country to country for a few months to see all the things you really want to see?

So, over the past year and a half (yes, it’s been that long in the making) I’ve researched my ass off, read tons and tons of travel blogs, saved large chunks of every paycheck, and realized that traveling long-term is totally doable with a little planning.

Once I knew this kind of travel was within my grasp, I had to go. So many people were quitting their jobs to travel for a year or more. Why couldn’t I?

And the more I think about it, the more I just know that 80-year-old Rachel will be really pissed if I don’t go out and do it. I just can’t have that kind of regret.

Why now?

It’s the perfect time. I’ve got no mortgage, no kids, and I’m not married.* This is as responsibility-free as I’ll ever be. That’s the short answer.

But these things didn’t just happen (or not happen) by themselves. This life is by design. I’ve planned it this way, because I know what I want right now:  travel.

Rather than wait until retirement, I’m ready to explore the world now. And why not? I’ve saved the money. I’m currently young and healthy; I’m fit enough to hike, scuba dive, and do all of the physical activities I want. And my stomach is still really good at eating super spicy foods and snacks from the street.

Not to be morbid, you guys, but who knows how long any of us are going to live anyway? If you’re saving your traveling years until you’re retired, you’re assuming that you’re going to make it to retirement. We don’t have that assurance. (For a more eloquent take on this topic, I enjoyed this post on the reality of death as motivation to travel.)

Since I’ve got the means and the freedom right now, so why not go? And this doesn’t just ring true for travel, but for anything you’re thinking of pursuing, by the way. You can’t just let shit passively happen to you – if you want something, you’ve got to go get it. Trust me, it’d be a lot easier for me to keep hanging out at my desk every day, collecting a solid paycheck, and buying random things from Homegoods, but that’s not what I want (though I did do that for a while). Not to be cheesy, but if you’ve got dreams, stop sitting on your ass!

*Though to be fair, even if I were married, I don’t think that would stop me. In fact, I’d think a loving husband would understand and support my plan to travel. It’s 2015, guys.

But what about your job?

So last week, I gave my three weeks’ notice (I thought it’d be nice to give more than two). This is how it went down:

I swear I was calm, cool, and collected until it was time to do it. But then at 4:00 PM, I paced around my office, took a few laps to the bathroom, walked by my boss’s office twice, and had several sips of water. My heart raced as I shuffled papers on my desk, stared out the window, and took deep breaths to try to calm down. I even read this blog post for a bit of inspiration. I sweated a lot.

I was feeling guilty, sad, excited, and very oh-my-God-what-the-hell-am-I-doing(?!?) all at once. I’d never quit a job before.

Charlie’s supportive text message at the time read, “Like a bandaid.”

Then I just did it.

It couldn’t have gone better, really. My boss was incredibly nice about it, and she smiled the entire time. (Though even if it was actually a fake perma-smile, I really appreciated it.) I couldn’t have asked for a more amicable atmosphere.

I don’t know what I was expecting, but I was truly freaking out. I told her the last date I could work and offered to do anything, ANYTHING, to help this transition go smoothly:  wrap my deals up, train people, leave instructions, anything. She said she was happy for me and that my trip seemed very exciting.

Whew!

I still feel a little bad about abandoning the office, but I’m just so, so relieved. My legal department is smart and I have no doubt they will be able to function just fine without me. I’m grateful for the opportunity provided to me by this job, especially when I was fresh out of law school, having just passed the bar exam and unemployed. (Oh god, is that going to be me a year from now? Let’s not think about that.) Though I’m not sure that commercial real estate an area of law I’m eager to jump back into, this job provided me with experience and the means to make this trip a possibility. For that, I’m thankful.

But Rachel, what about your boyfriend? Is he going to come?

This is often the very first question out of a person’s mouth when they hear about my upcoming plans.

I’m working on a more thorough post about this, but for now, suffice it to say that Charlie thoroughly supports my decision to travel alone. We’ll definitely miss each other, but he knows it’s a dream of mine, just as staying at home and growing his business is a dream of his. You wouldn’t keep the person you loved from pursuing their dreams, would you?

Um, don’t you have student loans that you’re always bitching about?

Okay, to be fair, after my brother and dad told me to stop talking about this all the time and I did. Since you ask, I calculated what my monthly loan payments will be for the period of time that I’m traveling, and I just added that amount to my total budget for my trip. Yeah, it’s a few thousand extra dollars that I had to save, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

Honestly, a few blog posts recommend putting student loans into forbearance while you travel (with my servicer, you can do this for a total of 36 months with no penalty – you know, except the fact that the outrageous interest is still constantly accruing), but that just sounded irresponsible to me, so I’ve saved up to cover the monthly payments while I’m gone. For more on traveling with student loans, check out how this girl with ivy league debt does it.

Plus, if I just threw all the cash I’d saved for travel at my student loans right now, do you know how much joy that would bring me? Absolutely zero.

But you’re going alone? Aren’t you afraid?

Not really. I’ve read tons of advice on solo female travel and researched my destinations. I don’t plan on doing anything abroad that I wouldn’t do at home (I realize that for some of you, if you know me, that’s not really comforting and you’re probably laughing right now, but I promise that I’m toning it down for solo travel). No walking alone at night or getting too drunk, I promise.

Tons of women travel by themselves every day. And if you need proof that women travel alone successfully, I’ll be happy to point you to some of my favorite bloggers who’ve been doing it for years, like Kate, Kristin, and (former lawyer!) Jodi.

But yeah, I am freaking out a little bit. In a good way.

How long are you going to be gone?

I don’t really know, but I’ve budgeted for ten to twelve months of travel, plus an emergency fund for my return home. We’ll have to see where it goes from there. It’s totally possible that after two months, I’ll be worn out or feel like I’m terrible at traveling solo. But somehow I doubt that.

Where are you going first?

Well, the plane ticket is purchased, I leave in October, and I’ve told most of my family and friends. So if you don’t already know, I’m saving that for another post. Stick around…

Is taking a career break to travel something you’d ever consider? Do you think I’m a raging idiot? Any other burning questions? Let me know what you think below. I can take it.

Be sure to subscribe with your email address below for updates on my travels. I’ll be blogging from the road and hope you’ll follow along!