Part I: The Great Sabbatical
The beginning of a long journey.
I have been dreaming about this sabbatical ever since 2018.
I was twenty years old, hanging out in a backpacker hostel in Bangkok. It had the rugged, backpacker-chic vibe that I had grown to love. There was a big pool surrounded by luscious palm trees, a rusty slide where you sent down your luggage, and wooden tables where people chatted excitedly over cheap beer and cigarettes.
People were constantly arriving and leaving. And yet, somehow, a small group always forms. Strangers who become friends, connected by a shared energy that’s hard to explain. The people who get along in hostels always seemed to find their way to each other, like an invisible gravitational pull.
And in that sense, solo-travelling became a way for me to expand and always come home back to myself, wherever I was in the world. I met people from countless backgrounds, cultures, and ages. And I began to realize that the ones I felt closest to were often reflections of myself. We found common ground and intrinsic similarities beneath all the differences.
In one of those hostel conversations, I met an Australian in his late twenties who had quit his job to travel for several months. It was the first time I had ever met someone who had done that.
Mind-blowing.
I had just finished my third year of university and was already anxious about landing a full-time job after graduation. Employment felt like a status marker. A sign of success. Especially in an immigrant family, and as the eldest daughter, achievement was never optional.
And here was this guy, who had chosen to walk away from it? To see the world? To, in my very limited framework at the time, essentially… fuck around?
I was confused. Yet, also very intrigued.
Imagine feeling so secure in your life that you could give up your job and trust yourself enough to figure it out later.
As I continued traveling, I started hearing similar stories everywhere.
People who had quit because they were burned out.
People who had been laid off.
People who had saved intentionally for years.
People who were taking a break before something new.
I was endlessly curious.
How did you decide?
Were you scared?
How do you afford it?
And slowly, quietly, something shifted in me.
I realized an adventure so grand could be possible in my life.
More importantly, it was when I first began to toy with the idea that there were other markers of success besides money or job titles.
From here, the dream of an epic sabbatical began to form.
If you’re curious on what happens next, or where I am in the world these days, feel free to subscribe below.