Why I decided to quit my job, leave my apartment, and spend my savings traveling

How do you trace your steps to the moment when you make a life-changing decision? Well, you know how every once in a while you become disgruntled at work and you fantasize about quitting and doing whatever you want? So yeah…that’s how it began for me. And then I finished paying off my student loans and became debt free (hooray!). And then I saw how much money I had saved up over the years (what am I saving it for?!). And then I proudly looked at the life I had built in Miami over the last six years. I was a grown up. And it was all good. And then I thought “Is this it? Am I just on the hamster wheel of adulthood?!”

The more I thought about it, the more I came to see that I was being given this golden moment in my life – to CHOOSE to go live it. I didn’t have to wait for it to happen to me. There has to be a reason I have this freedom.

Then, of course, the fear and doubt set in – I can’t just quit my job, that would be crazy and irresponsible. Everyone dreams of quitting, nobody actually does it. What if I can’t find a job later? Jobs are hard to come by, I’m just going to give it all up? How will I afford what I need? Blow my life savings on a trip because I’m restless at work? I could never travel by myself. I’d be too scared. What if something happens to me?

Here’s what I figured out – most of our fears and doubts are self-conjured. If we face them, we come to understand they are figments of our own insecurities. They have no power over us. Secondly, we build the cages we are in because they make us feel safe and secure, and that is good! But cages can also start to make us feel trapped. We forget that if we just push against the door, it’s unlocked. We can choose to step out of it.

It’s scary out in the world. I don’t have the security of my cage to protect me anymore. But I am a free bird. And a free bird has got to fly.