I had a habit. Every few years, I quit my job.
Whatever the job was would be fine at first. But slowly, the daily work would chip away at my soul. I’d get burnt out from whatever job I had at the time, get frustrated from feeling like I never had enough time to work on personal creative projects, and usually by year three, this feeling would eventually overwhelm me, and I would quit.
I’d take a couple of months off to relax and work on those personal projects, but just as I’d get into the groove of my own creative work, I’d start running out of money. Then, the stress would overtake any creative output. I’d get a new job, and start the whole cycle all over again.
In 2018, I felt the call of change. This time, however, I realized something. I could quit my job, but instead of staying in Los Angeles, I could use the time to travel. Even more, if I traveled to less expensive parts of the world, my money would last a lot longer than it would in LA. I could, potentially, travel for a full year.
So...I quit my job, ended my relationship, sold my stuff, packed everything I’d need for a year into one carry-on bag and one backpack, and boarded a jet to travel solo for a year-long creative sabbatical.
Enter excitement and great hopes. There were so many things I wanted to do with my time off. I wanted to draw, write, make animations, practice photography, design T-shirts, shoot videos, read, exercise, take more naps. And there were so many places I wanted to see. My plan was to spend half of my time in southeast Asia where things are cheap and the weather is warm in the autumn and winter, then in the spring, head to Europe.
My first stop was Chiang Mai, Thailand. With one plane ride, I was somewhere I’d never been before, with no job, no obligations, no structure or routine. However, the weird thing was how natural and normal it felt. Of course, I had to create my own new structure. My new schedule was simple - eat, work, explore, rest. That’s it. I’d repeat that cycle several times a day until I went to bed. While in Thailand I made T-shirts, built a website, made designs, set up social media accounts, ran online ads, and made some sales.
Next, in Vietnam, I worked on animation. I spent an entire month just playing around with different versions of software to figure out what platform and workflow I should use. I designed characters and their costumes, made rigs, drew storyboards and backgrounds and model sheets. Then I mostly focused on writing for the rest of my visit, along with practicing shooting photos and videos.
In my normal life, before my expedition when I had a job, the challenge was always work/life balance. What I quickly learned abroad was that even without a job, I still had to balance personal work that I wanted to do with exploring the cities I was traveling through. If I was working too much, I felt like I should be exploring more, because when would I be back in whichever country I was? Yet I also didn’t want to spend all my time sitting in a Starbucks (I know, I know, but they all have wifi and outlets and bathrooms and snacks). But, if I was exploring too much, I felt like I should’ve been working more because when else would I have an entire year off to only indulge in creative projects? There are always choices to make, and opportunity always comes at a price.
Looking back, I feel like I did a decent job of balancing work and play. I saw thousands of paper lanterns light up the night sky in Thailand, learned how to ride a scooter through the insane traffic of Vietnam, hiked through the jungles of Indonesia and saw orangutan in the wild. I explored mosques and cathedrals and castles and museums in Europe, saw great works of art by Picasso, Van Gogh, Degas, and Klimt. I learned a lot of European history that I had never learned when I was a kid in American public school. I ate a lot of pastries and drank a lot of coffee. It was all wonderful.
But I do wish I had done more work. Even without a full-time job, the logistics of travel eats up a lot of time and causes stress. There are language barriers and jet lag. Every time I moved on to a new country, I had to research their visa rules, decide which city to visit, what neighborhood in that city to stay in, book transportation and housing, research what sights to see and what tours to do, learn how to say basic phrases in a new language, figure out a new currency and which metros/buses to use, where the cafes and restaurants are, which cell phone SIM card to get, which cafes had the best coffee and fastest wifi and on and on and on. And just as I started to figure out a city, it was time to move on to the next destination.
After 13 months, I had traveled to 15 countries.
Before my trip, I thought this would be a once in a lifetime experience. Yet now, back home in sunny Los Angeles, in familiar territory and all the comforts of home, I’m starting to feel that this is something I definitely need to do again.
Soon.
Kiyong is a writer, designer, entrepreneur and all-around smart guy. Check out his art and buy some shirts for crying out loud.
