9 Things No One Tells You About Quitting Your Job to Travel the World

Some days, I sit and speak to those in my hostel and often think ¨wow they have learned so much while traveling, ¨ which inevitably leads me to the question.

¨Have I learned anything?¨ 

I feel like I have changed and grown, but am I being delusional, and maybe it is my ego that thinks I have changed so much?

Also, writing is always the perfect way to reflect, and even then, have I changed, or am I more aware now? I always have many unanswered questions. 

Since I have been living nomadically for five years, these are nine reflections of what I did not realize would happen.

If someone had told me these, I would have been such a ball of anxiety and stress that I would have said ¨ya big fat liar¨ how can I gain all this by just traveling!

It is like the saying once you see something, it can not be unseen. The lies are revealed once you have seen the truth, and you will never be the same again. That is how I feel about long-term travel.

Your healthy diet/exercise routine will go out the window.

I was a health fanatic, and I still am. Yet, when living and working in LA, I went to yoga, pilates, barre classes, walks, hikes, and runs. Constantly on another fad diet or juice cleanse to stay healthy. 

Now, I am learning to find a balance instead of being so dramatic one way or the other. Still, if you had told me that my old routines would go away, I would never have believed you or maybe never left because fitness was my religion.

No, I focus on overall health for my insides and how I feel vs. how I look. This is a total transformation that the old me would never have approved of.

You will long for the easy days of going to and from work

Some days, as I am writing, creating, and occasionally comparing myself to others, I reminisce about the days of punching in and out. At times, if I think of that, it was easy. Knowing exactly how much money I would have every month, wow. 

How easy.

Except I would never trade my current life for my old. But on certain days and months when I am working and in comparison mode, that 12-hour shift seems easier than trying to come up with and create something from nothing.

Of course, I prefer doing what I am doing now, but dang, I had an easy life then. Yet, I am never one to choose the easy path!

You will realize that you want to work, hence this blog and YouTube channel, and that I have had over three remote jobs. I get bored and can not spend all of my time seeing the sights.

Time becomes a whole new concept.

I had to look at my calendar this morning because I had no idea what day it was. I thought it was the weekend, but I was not sure. Yes, I found out it is Saturday. 

This brings me back to asking my patients ¨do you know what day it is¨ - mainly working in the Neuro ICU. We, nurses, used to laugh that we didn't know the day yet expect someone who had been in the ICU for weeks to know. I am not in a hospital and don't even know the day. So time becomes kind of irrelevant. Does it matter what the day is, really? No, not at all. I only need to know if I am checking in and out of a hostel or getting on a plane.

Any Routine you have will go out the window.

As with time, routines become something of the past. Unless you stop moving long enough to reestablish one, some travelers keep a daily routine; I bet they stay in hotels or rent a private room or apartment.

Because if you are living in and out of hostels, volunteering, you end up meeting people, staying up late, not sleeping well, and the thought of that 8 a.m. yoga is gone.

Plus, where are you going to practice on the kitchen floor?

Depends on the hostel also. Luckily, I have one routine in my life: writing and going on a long walk. Both do not need a timetable.

They happen when my brain tells me to either sit still and write or get up and move. You will also begin to miss having a routine, which is why many long-term travelers like me stay places long to get a sense of routine and feel less chaotic, even for a few months.

You will probably cry a million times, and when you arrive in your first country and make it through immigration, you will cry again

I have cried on buses, on planes, on the side of the road. Sometimes out of joy, but mostly out of wtf I am doing here with my life, and then you will cry again when you realize you are essentially free to do whatever you want.

That is worth a good cry if you ask me because the what and how will always come if you stick to your heart and listen a bit closer; she will never let you down.

Crying after immigration sometimes when you are on an expired visa or overstayed by one day and tried to return to a country. I have stood speaking with immigration for over 10 minutes, arguing about my status and intentions in Spanish because I have dealt with immigration already, but the memo is never relayed.

They eventually figure it out, but it's frustrating, so I cry, then I cry again. It happens it is part of travel.

The day you quit will be exciting and scary at the same time

The day you quit your job and walk out for the last time is liberating until you wake up in a foreign country and wonder what you just got yourself into.

It can be scary, especially if it is your first time alone, but you are never truly alone. There will be other travelers in the same situation as you are, so be open to new experiences, and soon you will be an old pro.

You will miss familiarity

Yes, sometimes, when you are in a country where no one speaks your language, you only want to go to a store where you are understood. Or have someone else appreciate your movie references, slang, and method of doing something.

You will only get that feeling of home if you meet someone from your home country. This is why you will instantly bond when you meet someone abroad, and they are from your home country.

Even if you would never have met in your previous life, having someone from the same place who understands you can be comforting.

You can always go back

The biggest one is that your old life will always be there waiting for you, like an old cozy pair of slippers that, when you put them back on, you can resume your old life just as you left it.

The only difference is that you will change, and that old cozy pair of slippers might begin to feel constricted and not as comfy as you remember them.

There will be days that you Netflix and Chill.

Somedays, you can not be bothered to do another travel day or see another sight. If you think about it, you had days of rest while living in your home. We travelers sometimes feel guilty about not seeing everything. This took me a long time to accept.

I think: ¨if I am sitting here in Tbilisi, I SHOULD be doing something¨; no, if I want to binge a series, I will and not feel guilty. I am still working on it.

I am much better than I was, but it takes a long time to get to the point of doing nothing while traveling.

The last thing about quitting your job is to travel the world; even if it's for a month or two, you will change. You will gain a new perspective, even a new appreciation for the life you are living or have lived.

When most of us make such big changes in our lives, we are scared and often put in too many what-ifs, which holds many people back from even leaping.

However, I can guarantee you that your old life is there, so what do you have to lose by chasing a dream?

It can be applied to anything you want to do in life, not just travel, but writing, starting a business, moving to a new state, or taking a new job. If there is no risk, there will never be a reward.

I will continue to advocate for taking a career break of at least six months in your adult life. It will help you either appreciate your current life or project you into an entirely new life, a career you never thought possible.

We humans get so comfortable that we think it's good enough where I am, but what if it could be better?

After this list, you are like, but some of these things sound horrible, and how could I ever live without my routines?

You make a new one. One that revolves around your new life. Maybe you are like me and not a crier; crying is healthy. Testing your boundaries and living an exciting life has ups and downs, but I have never regretted quitting my job; I regret not doing it sooner.

So why not try the thing you want but are too scared of?

Fear is the one thing I no longer allow into my life; at least she is not the driver anymore. I will use her as needed but not be the primary decision-maker.

You can never return to who you were before; I only became who I wanted to be by looking fear in the face and giving it the middle finger. This list could go on, but I will stop here.

XOXO

S