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...

Famous last words.

My phone rings.

“Hi Kyle this is Ben Henson” (not his real name)

Ben Henson is an important person at my company. When you get a call from him it usually isn’t a good thing. At this exact moment, my roommate Peter comes walking up the stairs. He shoots me a knowing look and that’s when I realize what is coming.

A few moments ago, I heard Peter in the next room talking on the phone. I definitely heard him say “Hi Ben.” Add this to the fact that there have been rumors for months of impending layoffs at our company and it becomes obvious that Peter just got laid off by Ben and now its about to be my turn.

Ben goes through the typical lead up you might expect from this conversation. Knowing what’s coming, I’d like him to cut to the chase, but I allow him to go through his rehearsed spiel. Apparently, 60 engineers were laid off while we were in Brazil. We were the only two on the list who were traveling at the time, and management had been waiting for us to return before they broke it to us. This way we could finish the work there before getting canned (how nice of them).

I hang up the phone from Ben. A moment goes by. I am a bit in shock. Then I start giggling. I can’t stop. I’ve been emotionally done with this job for almost a year. My plan was to begin looking for a new one as soon as I had exhausted all opportunities to go to Brazil. This is exactly what I wanted plus a severance check. I’m shocked, but ecstatic. Peter starts giggling too. Now neither of us can stop. Suddenly whatever we were just doing seems irrelevant. We are free men. What do we do now?

We decide to buy limes and Vodka.

The cashier notes our odd, excited energy.

“You guys seem pretty happy, right now” she says

“We just got FIRED!!!” we reply. Giggling the whole time.

She seems a bit perplexed at our enthusiasm but offers a very tentative congratulations and asks what we will do next.

“I’m going to take my severance check and travel the WHOLE WORLD until it runs out!!”

Side note: I had some pretty good food in Brazil but my favorite dish is called a caipiroska. It is a very traditional Brazilian dish and is made with Vodka, Limes and sugar.

Also, it’s not exactly a “dish”.

Later, our third roommate comes home and finds us very silly in the kitchen. She too is perplexed by our oddly upbeat humor but joins in on a round of caipiroskas none the less.

I didn’t know then what would happen next. But I had a feeling it was going to be good.