The Reaction: Did we make the right choice quitting our jobs to travel?

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Hey guys. We have something to tell you. We’re leaving! We quit our good jobs, and we’re going to travel the world, for a year… or until our money runs out.

Yup, we decided to leave our friends and family, our home, our pet, everything we know behind. But we’ll be back… Eventually.

There are a few rare times in life when you decide to take a huge leap. You close your eyes, take a deep breath and jump in head first, hoping that you’re making the right decision.

And then, you hear the reactions roll in:

“You’re so lucky! I wish I could do that”

“You guys are crazy! I could never do that.”

“It’s going to cost how much? Pfft! Too expensive!”

“I’ve always wanted to do that but never did, and now I have kids, so I guess I’ll do it later…”

“Ya, I’ll do it when I retire.”

And my favorite, from the CEO of the company I was working for: “Yes. FREEDOM!

Having heard the reactions, it seems like we’re onto something.

Poet's Park, Jeju Island, South Korea
We took a little break out of the sun in Jeju, South Korea

Most were happy for us but sad to see us go. A bittersweet sentiment we shared as well. It’s hard to leave your life behind, even if it’s for a short while. After all, what is a year in the grand scheme of a lifetime?

Many thought we were crazy. They could never imagine doing such a thing. Maybe we are a little nuts but sometimes, it’s the things that scare us most that teach us our most valuable lessons. We’re ready to learn all the lessons we can… hopefully not always the hard way!

A great majority, however, were happy and almost jealous of what we were doing. Almost all of them spoke about how they’ve always wanted to do this, but how life got in the way – they got a promotion, had children, had to pay for a house. There are always reasons for holding us in one place. For us, there were a million reasons pushing us to go.

Stealing kisses on the shores of Udo Island, South Korea
Stealing kisses on the shores of Udo Island, South Korea

After all, when asked, “What would you do if you found out you were going to die in 6 months?“, don’t we all say, “I’d quit my job, and go travel the world!”  We didn’t want to wait until we had lived the life we were supposed to, to finally start living the life we wanted to.

Most of us choose to live this grind, day in, day out, and never take that step back to question if we’re living life to its full potential or even if we’re living the life we want to. Falling into a routine is easy, and before you know it, you wish you had made other life decisions.

We know that eventually, we’ll have to go back to work, but we wanted to take some time and enjoy the life we were working to build.

Yes, we are very lucky to be able to have made this decision and do this, but we’ve worked hard, spent a lot of time dealing with hard situations and tough decisions to be able to afford the ultimate luxury of time.

Will it be worth it? Only time will tell. After 6 months, we have some thoughts.


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2 Comments

  1. Jaji

    Worth it? I think you knew the answer before even leaving Montreal 🙂

    Keep on experiencing the world on your own terms!

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Hi there!

We’re Carine and Derek, two Canadians in love with each other, the environment and this world. We left our old routines behind to discover all the wonders our planet has to offer. We want to inspire everyone to chase their dreams and leave a positive impact on Earth.

Carine and Derek aka We did it our way
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