I can live for a few months of the year in Bali and then, if the weather is nice, I can go to Bulgaria and go hiking for a few months. Essentially, I’m a freelancer who is location independent. My main job (other than writing content for the wild and wonderful Broke Backpacker) is as a translator. And here I am, surrounded by monkeys and writing about travel for a living. Living and working abroad has always been my plan. So there was never any question that I would be living abroad – and travelling – as part of my job. I had been travelling in some form since I was 13, and have been travelling solo since around 18. I was rather nosy about her life choices, and she obliged and gave me brilliant insights on working and travel that I can share with y’all now.Īctually there are literally five monkeys around me right now, I always forget that I’m living on a tropical island!Īnyway, I guess I was never aiming to be a digital nomad per se, but I always knew I wanted to live and work abroad. I called up Elina, a member of our ever-expanding and marvellous team, to ask her about digital nomadism and working remotely.Įlina has spent around 10 years on the road, so naturally, I wanted to know why. You have to give up the catch a bus every week kind of travel once it’s served its purpose.

Even if you end up splitting your time between two countries, or working on the road. Homesickness exists for a place you’ve never found.Īll the reasons you might list as a reason not to go travelling could crop up in your stable life, too. Relationships fail while remembering to take the trash out every night. You can be financially insecure while holding down a 9 – 5. And then that month, I started planning my crossing. It made me go, I wonder if I can sail across the Pacific Ocean. Somewhere between sharing cigarettes with the kids who deal cocaine and cooking my 8th plate of scrambled eggs that morning for the cafe, I realised travel had made me grow. But I wanted to travel and so I did: I picked fruit, gutted fish, and lived next door to an ex-cartel member. I don’t want to overly glamorise some of the shitty living situations and mucky jobs I’ve taken on. Once you’ve made the decision to quit your job and travel, the rest of it becomes logistics. Hi, I’m Indi, I’ll be your budget guide today – for a donation. You’ll learn that travelling won’t give you what you need that what you were looking for… it was looking back at you from the mirror the whole time. You go seeking somewhere that feels like home. You quit your job, your studies, and your emotionally abusive relationships to go travelling – because you have to. Sometimes we forget that while travelling to discover the world, spellbinding experiences, and, ultimately, yourself, is – and always will be – a fucking good story, that’s usually not the WHOLE story. Perhaps it’s something we overlook amongst the romanticization of wanderlust and moments of “Omg, I bought a one-way ticket to go backpacking in Thailand – so quirky!”. If you only ever do what you’ve always done, then you’ll only ever get what you’ve always gotten. And I’m going to be a better person for it. We’ve all got something that made us go, fuck it Imma travel the world. Turns out every dirtbag has a dusty, crusty origin story. I kept my origin story on the down-low and thought it was weird and unique and awful. I mean, I quit my job to travel but it’s hard to find people that relate to that. We all have that one person who we know has “done the thing”. OK, so it’s still just my two cents worth, but you’ve come looking for answers! And answers I’ll give you! 😉 So here’s a balanced take on quitting your job to travel the world. Once that purpose is served, there isn’t necessarily a need to keep going.īut I will always argue that travel is the number one way to push yourself to the edge of your comfort zone and level up as a person – even if it is a temporary space. I think it’s important to recognise that travel serves a purpose. I think there are some times when not quitting your job to travel the world is the right thing to do. This article might not be what you expect a travel blogger to say in answer to this question. I think in every traveller’s genesis story, there is an element of ok, that’s it. It’s not always a cute sunset picture that’s perfectly framed for Instagram. You will probably throw up the usual defences of travel is expensive, you don’t know where you would go, or what you would do. So you’re sitting at your desk and wondering, alright, do I do it? Do I quit my job to travel the world?

Quit my job