HOW LOSING MY JOB CATAPULTED ME ON A GLOBAL JOURNEY OF SELF DISCOVERY
It is mid January 2018. I am in my living room, suitcase open, all my stuff strewn across the floor. I’m not leaving, but returning. My roomate and co-worker Peter and I have spent the past 2 weeks on a work trip to Brazil. This was my fourth trip and though I love travel, I have come to dislike work travel. The past 6 months have been a cycle of being in Brazil for one month and home for one month only to return to Brazil again for a month. Splitting my time equally between two places makes me feel unsettled and disconnected from my friends. I did make friends in Brazil, learned a fair amount of Portuguese, and was able to do some exploring, but working 10-12 hour days 6 days a week on average left me pretty exhausted. Even so, I enjoyed Brazil enough that I chose to hang on to a job I disliked because of the opportunity to go there. It was a great experience that I wouldn’t ever take back. But I’m ready to be home for awhile...