We Quit Our Jobs!

It’s happening people! Both Moo and I have officially quit our jobs in preparation to travel for a year. That’s right, we’re packing up, selling up and heading west for, as we put it: “long as the money lasts” and we’re doing that with just 7kgs – carry-on luggage only.

In case you missed it, I had the opportunity to chat about it with Holly Wainwright, Head of Content for Mamamia on her podcast ‘I don’t know how she does it – travel edition’ and you can read all about our plans on the DailyMail Australia.

So, at this point you’re probably thinking:

“Wow! What the hell are you going to do when you travel for a year?”

or

“How will you afford that?”

or

“Why?”

All reasonable questions.

I guess the real reason we’ve decided to ‘chuck it all in’ so to speak is because: Why not? Without anything tying us down, we figured we had nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Thus far, our ‘planning’ has reached as far as purchasing a one-way ticket to Athens with the idea to keep heading west from there. After arriving in Athens, the world is our oyster and we’ll go wherever our noses (and stomachs) take us.

We decided to travel with carry-on luggage (7kgs) in order to reduce our footprint, simplify our lives and travel with more of a minimalist approach in mind. That less is indeed more.

I guess another reason for wanting to escape the norm was to remove myself from the things in life that no longer sparked joy (I’m no longer talking about clothing and homewares here.) It took me a really long time (about five years) to discover that my job was no longer fulfilling and that Sydney as a city, was getting me down.

It’s hard to shake the feelings of not being ‘okay’.

While my relationships have been the lifeline in getting me through, I couldn’t help but think there was more to life than working for someone who didn’t really care about me and a city that felt like it was quite frankly the right place at the wrong time. I was tired.

Tired of avoiding fines for crossing the street, of hunting out car parks that didn’t exist, of lock out laws and restauranteur restrictions that state you must buy food to have a glass of wine here, of noise – oh the noise – of diabolical destruction and reconstruction, the desperate need to feel connected and, far too often, to disconnect.

Looking back, I saw no way forward. I was immune to the suffering. It was time to leave Sydney.

Thankfully Moo was fully supportive and while he absolutely loved his job, he was more than happy to put it on hold to go walk about with me.

So as I write this, we have officially moved out of our apartment and will continue to house sit and work until May (saving as much as we can in the process.) We’ve sold all the big ticket items from our apartment and put the rest in storage and sadly we’ve had to relocate the loveable rogue that is Chad, the cat.

Over the next few weeks, follow our journey as we continue to pack up our lives, start to plan our itinerary and farewell a city that never truly felt like home.

The unknown is the least scary thing about it – the scariest part will be deciding what goes in my 7kgs backpack!

Until next week xo

PS: Have you any advice for us when we travel for a year?