I quit my job to travel the world!

I know I’ve hinted many times that my 30s are going to rock. And that I have big, huge, monumental, fantastically awesome plans. And now that everything is starting to come together and is pretty much officially official I can now announce it to the universe.

I quit my job to travel the world!

OK, so really I gave four months notice at my job and am going to travel what actually works out to be a very small portion of the world. But “I quit my job to travel the world” sounds more bad ass. So we’ll go with it.

My plan is to take about a year or so to travel through Europe, Southeast Asia, Australia, and the U.S. I’m starting in Berlin because after months of looking around I found the cheapest one-way, non-stop flight there. So it seemed as good of a starting point as any. I’m going to have a general idea of what I’m doing but hardly any set plans. I’m going to kind of just go until the money runs out.

Me at Neuschwanstein Castle in 2006.

 

Last week I told my boss that I am leaving in July. Yes, I know to some of you that seems silly to give four months of notice at work. But, to me, it made sense. My coworker had already announced that he was leaving in July to concentrate on his own business. That left our entire web team (of two) leaving at about the same time. And since I am the only person at my work who knows my job backwards and forwards I wanted to make sure that they were prepared for me to go. So it was the right choice for me.

Luckily my boss took it well and while he’s sad I am leaving, and not too happy that he’s losing two of us at once, he is happy for me.

And now that a plane ticket is bought and my work knows and you know, so there’s no backing out now!

And that, my friends, is scary.

And when I get scared I start rethinking everything and searching Craigslist for condos. True story.

In all honesty I’m not sure how I will take to it. This whole thing is completely out of my comfort zone. I’ve quit my job to travel before. But that was just a 3-week stint around Europe. With friends. And it was all planned out (by people other than me).

Me and my friends on a gondola in Venice, Italy in 2006.

 

This time I’ll be on my own, making my own decisions, my own itinerary, and playing it by ear. I have a general map in my head that I plan to follow but I am allowing myself to go with the flow and detour, figure out things as I go. Not have anything booked passed maybe the first week.

But I am also allowing myself to come home after a few months if I am really truly miserable and just can’t do it. And I will be OK with that. Because I will have tried.

I’ve been thinking of doing this for years but for many reasons kept putting it off and about a year ago I decided that this summer I would take the plunge. Originally I was just going to do Europe because even that feels far beyond what I feel comfortable tackling on my own. But after hearing so many wonderful stories at Meet, Plan, Go last year I started thinking “why can’t I do more?”

So my general plan is to start in Europe and then maybe India (because Sid got it in my head!) and then Southeast Asia and then Australia and then (if I have any money left and can find some others to join me) take an awesome road trip around the U.S. Or at least part of it. Or something.

Or come home crying in a month. One or the other.

Luckily I won’t be alone the entire time. I already have possible plans to meet up with Jaime and Ali in Spain for La Tomatina (a tomato throwing festival!). And Mat wants to come visit so I’m trying to convince him to do Paris and London in September. And, really, I’ve never had a hard time meeting people when traveling abroad.

I met some amazing friends at a bar crawl in Amsterdam in 2008!

 

So, there you have it. On July 6 I’m hopping on a plane from New York (where I will be for July 4, because is there really any better way to spend your last U.S. day in a while than at Coney Island watching people stuff their faces with hot dogs?) to Berlin with no set date to return. Everything just went from something I say I’m going to do to something I’m actually doing!

I quit my job to travel the world. And I’m scared. And nervous. And really, truly, excited.