How I quit my job
When people hear how I quit my job as a lawyer after six years of corporate work, they assume I burned out and fled the nine-to-five (or, more accurately, the nine-to-midnight), leaving contracts, negotiations and lawsuits behind.
In reality, I long had aspired to travel the world for a year, inspired by a documentary I saw in high school about trans-Siberian trains. Staring at the screen, watching birch trees and snow and a railroad track running for thousands of kilometres, I resolved to take the journey from St Petersburg to Mongolia’s Ulaanbaatar myself. Almost a decade later, those trains were a huge part of why I gave notice at my law firm to do a round-the-world trip, but over the years, my fantasy trip to Siberia had morphed into a trip to... everywhere. I wanted to see as much of the world as I could in a year. I expected to return to practicing law thereafter, hopefully working in the public sector instead of a private firm.
Related article: How I quit my job to travel: The wedding photographer
I quit my job in March 2008. Now, six years later, where I am today surprises me as much as anyone else. My website Legal Nomads – which I started so my mother could keep track of my wanderings – has grown to a million views a year. I freelance about travel and food for various publications around the world, I work as a social media consultant, I’m a public speaker and I’m a brand ambassador for Canadian travel company G Adventures.
And some of the lessons I learned to get here were intangible.
For one, despite the stereotypes associated with long-term travellers or career changers, I did not start travelling with the purpose of “finding myself”. Others I have met on the road echo the same, saying they did not take off for the purposes of self-discovery, even if it was a fun by-product. Plus, if you reframe a decision to quit your job as a practical learning experience versus something more stereotypical, it goes a long way toward convincing those around you
In reality, I long had aspired to travel the world for a year, inspired by a documentary I saw in high school about trans-Siberian trains. Staring at the screen, watching birch trees and snow and a railroad track running for thousands of kilometres, I resolved to take the journey from St Petersburg to Mongolia’s Ulaanbaatar myself. Almost a decade later, those trains were a huge part of why I gave notice at my law firm to do a round-the-world trip, but over the years, my fantasy trip to Siberia had morphed into a trip to... everywhere. I wanted to see as much of the world as I could in a year. I expected to return to practicing law thereafter, hopefully working in the public sector instead of a private firm.
Related article: How I quit my job to travel: The wedding photographer
I quit my job in March 2008. Now, six years later, where I am today surprises me as much as anyone else. My website Legal Nomads – which I started so my mother could keep track of my wanderings – has grown to a million views a year. I freelance about travel and food for various publications around the world, I work as a social media consultant, I’m a public speaker and I’m a brand ambassador for Canadian travel company G Adventures.
And some of the lessons I learned to get here were intangible.
For one, despite the stereotypes associated with long-term travellers or career changers, I did not start travelling with the purpose of “finding myself”. Others I have met on the road echo the same, saying they did not take off for the purposes of self-discovery, even if it was a fun by-product. Plus, if you reframe a decision to quit your job as a practical learning experience versus something more stereotypical, it goes a long way toward convincing those around you