Yes, that’s right. Starting next month, I will be a full-time blogger and social media consultant. * Stimulates excitement and jumps up and down uncontrollably.
*Immediately followed by wide-eyed fear and a little voice in the back of my head asking what the hell I’ve done?
Before I start, please know that I’m not doing the classic travel blogger thing, I’m just quitting my job to travel the world. I have no intention of “getting out of the cubicle.” I’m not a lawyer or a banker, and while the pay is good, it’s not rewarding and I feel like I want to escape from that. In a sense, I wish it were that way. That would have made the decision easier!
As you know, I love working in social media. I work as the Social Media Director for one of the world’s largest independent travel retailers. It’s a dream job.
But for the past few months, I’ve had an unpleasant thought in the back of my mind and I know I have to give it a try.
I will travel more. I will write more blogs. And I’m going to do more of what I love, which is helping small businesses use social media effectively.
I blame it on all these inspirational quotes on Pinterest: Create your dreams, Be the person you want to meet, and give me the courage to dream. Yadda yadda yadda. You’ve probably heard of it.
Working on social media, I get bombarded with these quotes, so I think I’ve become immune to them and even irritated by updates that start with “The world is a book…” Ta….’
but one day, a colleague at gapyear.com posted this quote by Jack Kerouac on Facebook, and I couldn’t stop thinking about it.
It stayed with me for weeks and when I saw the truth in it, I felt uneasy. The funny thing is, some words flow into your mind without you even looking at them, while others get on your nerves and you keep typing them until all you can think about is climbing that damn mountain.
No matter how much you love your job, when you’re 90 years old, will you remember the days spent sitting in an office, or will you remember the days spent on top of a mountain?
So after thinking about it for a few months, I decided to put on my walking boots and start climbing.
What next?
I’ll be traveling quite a bit over the next few months. I’m going to Iceland, a yoga retreat, two trips to Dublin, and lots of exciting European travel, which I’ll talk about soon.
I will remain at Flight Center as a freelancer, working with several startup companies, and also launching a new blog that will be completed soon. Freelance work can be very busy, very exciting and very rewarding, so watch this space for more information.
Why now?
This is the first question I get asked when I tell someone I’m going freelance. This was also a question I was asking other freelancers when I made my decision. I would like to know if there is any reason for you to suddenly make a decision.
To be honest, it was something I knew I would do at some point, so I thought, ‘Why not now?’
I’m young, but that means I’m not responsible. I have no mortgage to pay, no one to rely on me, and nothing to lose.
But more importantly, not trying is scarier.
If there’s one thing I fear more than anything in this world, it’s getting older and having regrets. Or maybe you don’t regret it, but you forget it because it’s not memorable. I don’t want to live a life that is not memorable. I think that’s why I obsessively photograph everything and don’t want to forget anything.
I always remember my father saying, “The years fly by, and the older I get, the faster time passes.” I’m not worried about getting older, but I’m worried about being filled with regrets and unfulfilled wishes. As the lovely woman in this photo says, “At least I tried’.