On Monday you had a completely predictable day at work. The next two days were kinda crappy but at afternoon tea you got some cake because Emily from accounting had her birthday this week and HR ordered a Black Forest one. SCORE! But … 20 mins later the confection morphed into an uncomfortable paunch of guilt that hung over your trousers when you sat back at your desk. The sugar crash hit, and it was back to the grind.

Slouched over your food baby, you come to the realization that you’re more or less living the same day, over and over and over again with tiny variables here and there. Much like your most trusted pair of worn out undies that don’t creep up your butt, your life is boring and predictable, but comfortable.

But that’s just the way life is. Right?

RIGHT????

You work hard not just to make ends meet, but also to enjoy little treats between the mundanity of work while still having enough moolah left over at the end of the month to put in your piggy banks (which always has a tendency to look a little more malnourished than you’d like) for bigger milestones in life.

So you save and you save and once every so often maybe…mmmmmayyyybe….. you have enough annual leave and money to go on a trip. On average most people have about 11-22 days of annual leave. That still leaves the other 343-353 days of the year where you have work looming over your head every night as you close your eyes.

Here’s a sexy chart I found which was clearly made by someone who likes the colour blue a little too much. But more to the point, it shows the minimum days of paid annual leave around the globe.

*Minimum days of paid annual leave around the world*

The above figures don’t factor in public holidays or sick leave, but even so, we work WAY more than we play. Recently a friend was telling me how it took her the first 2 to 3 days of her vacation just to let go of the habit of checking her work emails, even while laying on the beach with a mimosa in hand!

What if it didn’t have to be this way?

Every year I try to go on at least one vacation. London last year, Bandung the year before. This year I went to Bali.

But this time around something was very different.

Usually I meet people who, like me, are just on a short getaway from work and other monotonous routines. This time around, I kept meeting people who had quit their jobs to roam the globe. I’m not talking about septuagenarian retired lawyers who have a lifetime of savings in the bank and have gone off to travel as a reward to themselves for competing in the corporate ladder climbing Olympics for the last four decades. No! These were YOUNG people who were living very humbly in order to experience all the world has to offer on a long term basis on a very tight budget.

The first thing I asked these people was always HOW?! And how much was saved before they set out? The answer always surprised me. It was always less than USD 10,000

Does this mean that I too can shrug off a job that feeds and clothes me to flit about and just live from day to day?

The thought alone = ANXIETY

But who ever got anywhere without doing the things that they were most afraid of doing!?

So, I’ve decided that I’m just gonna go for it! I’ve sold most of the things I own, and bought a one way ticket out.

I’m going to be travelling on the tightest of budgets! So if you’d like, come be my virtual travel buddy and keep me company as I travel over some of The Americas, and then wherever else the road may take me!!

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