I quit my job today.
I have a few months to go until I leave — my last day will be July 31, 2019.
If you want the details, I have been toiling away in the Capitalist Oligarchy for nearly 30 years since college. It’s time to step away and take a gap year. Barring anything unforeseen, like winning the lottery or death, I can’t afford to retire just yet, so I will be back.
I have been fortunate enough to have had a career that has afforded me enough income that I can have a first world solution to the problem of malaise that many are not entitled. I am also fortunate to have a supportive wife. This process began more than a year ago. Tanya and I have tried to reconstruct the timeline of how we got here. We agree that it was her idea.
It definitely started with her applying for a sabbatical and a Fulbright to go to southeast Asia. She got the sabbatical and not the Fulbright. So, we agreed, before she even started on the sabbatical proposal that (1) she would make a proposal that would take her abroad for the semester and, (2) that I would leave my job and join her.
After that, I think I started playing around on Rome2Rio to see what our options for side trips were. Tanya, who had an actual reason for being there would not be able to meet the aggressive schedule that I had planned and didn’t want me to go off and experience these places without her, suggested that I take a full year and travel solo for the other part of the year.
So, that is how we got to today: A sabbatical and a plan to live abroad. A plan that grew to double (for me). And a spreadsheet.
I can’t imagine very many wives giving their husbands the gift (and trust) to venture off on their own for four months, but Tanya has given me that. And just like that, I started planning a trip (and figuring out how to pay for it.) For reasons of podcasts, I became interested in the silk road — specifically Uzbekistan. From there, it seemed like a long way to go for one country and I started researching the region. Kazakhstan, I had read about in Michael Pollan’s book, “The Botany of Desire.” They had also built a new capital from the ground up in 1997. So, I started planning a trip in a spreadsheet that started in Kazakhstan and went through the Caucuses to Turkey.
In Turkey, I wanted Tanya to join me. I thought that she had given me so much, that a trip to Istanbul was the least I could do. Did I mention that I went down the rabbit hole of credit card miles and points programs? That has saved us a fortune on this trip. Check out the 10x Travel group on Facebook — lots of information (though I figured most of it prior to finding them and they can be a bit culty).
After Turkey, I would travel across southern Europe and leave from Lisbon to be home in time for Christmas. To date, the only things that I have booked are:
One way MCI to EWR 8/19
One way JFK to TSE 8/20
2 nights hostel in Astana
Tanya R/T MCI to IST 10/10 - 18
8 night hotel in Istanbul
One way LIS to BOS 12/17
2 nights hotel in Boston
One way BOS to MCI 12/19
I have spent $21.68 plus a bunch of points so far. There’s another blog post that details this part of it, if you’re interested.
By March of this year (2019), we knew that Tanya had been awarded the sabbatical but not the Fulbright. This was both good and bad. Good, in that it gave her more flexibility to do her project. Bad, in that less money would be available for her to do it. We needed to make a decision on how we would proceed with the sabbatical. We decided that we would go to southeast Asia. We also decided that we would put off until Istanbul exactly how we would carry out her project.
In May, the Department Chair position opened in her department. She has been conflicted about her art career and her work for a while now and has had trouble getting deeply involved in her work. She was encouraged to apply for the Chair position and she did. She was named Chair in late May 2019. This meant that she would have to put off her sabbatical. She decided to go for it. This is not a position that we expected to find ourselves in, but I think we are both get some growth and change that we desperately need. So, we have started reworking our plans. I will travel for a year or until I am tired and ready to come home, whichever comes first (it’s important to be home by November to vote the Orange motherfucker out of office). She will run the department and we will plan some trips where she can come whenever possible.
At this point, we are exploring changes that work for both of us. We are looking more at South America rather than Asia for the Winter/Spring travel. It’s closer for her to pop down and mostly in the same time zone. We are a long way from having it figured out. Again, we will make a plan in Istanbul.
It’s also nice in that it partially solves the problem of someone (Tanya) being nearby to help with my aging mother. I owe her for that. It also means that we don’t have to get a house/dog sitter to watch over the young puppy. We also don’t have to spend time on that least favorite task of cleaning house.
So, I think where I am going is: (1) embrace change; (2) live a little — I’m old enough that friends around my age are having heart attacks and dropping dead. See something before then. I also know how lucky I am to have a wife that has encouraged my irresponsible behavior.
By taking a year now, I have probably added two to the end of career. If this goes well, I may do it again when Tanya has a sabbatical and can join me — and a few more years to the end of my career. Youth is often wasted on the young. While it is debatable whether I am young, I am still upright and have all my original parts. If it means enjoying life a little now by trading in a couple of my wheelchair bound, Depends wearing years being chained to a desk, I see a certain poetic justice in that.