Three Glorious Years!
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My parents are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary next week – it’s amazing. I find it really hard to believe that my parents could stand anything for 50 years, let alone each other. This is especially difficult for me to understand, considering I, their flesh and blood creation, am incapable of staying committed to any place or job for longer than 3 or 4 years, it seems. Obviously, patience and tolerance didn’t rub off on me.
As my parents celebrate their golden anniversary, I’m celebrating my 3-year anniversary (that’s leather, in case you wanted to send a gift!) No, I’ve not been secretly married; instead, I’m celebrating my separation from corporate life! It’s been exactly 3 years since I quit my corporate career and ran away in search of an adventure. What was supposed to start off as a one-year career break has taken many twists and turns full of excitement and tears, and somehow, it has landed me in Vietnam for a while. The one thing I’ve learned in the past 3 years is how to embrace the unknown, a necessary skill for my nomadic lifestyle.
Even though I escaped from corporate America, I haven’t been a complete slacker as most of you (aka my parents and family) think. In fact, if you think that all I do is travel around the world and take pictures, that’s just one small piece of my life over the last 3 years. Instead, I do many different jobs: teach ESL, manage a website for a handbag company, keep up this blog, and write for other websites (and sometimes I even get paid money for that…woohoo!).
To top it off, last March, a partner and I started a website about inspiring others to take a career break and travel. Granted, we’re not advocating that you leave your job and never go back as I did, instead we are helping people understand how to take a break and come back to a career, or start a new one if you want! The site inspires and (hopefully) demonstrates that a career break is not going to destroy your career; in fact, quite the opposite, it can boost it!
If you haven’t checked out Briefcase to Backpack yet, then take a moment now to do so! At least I’m trying to help others escape a bit – I figure that’s my way of giving back to the poor, overworked cubicle dwellers out there. It’s not been easy starting a business as Michaela and I are in two different parts of the world and struggling to keep it all moving along while holding down our other jobs, but it’s gaining traction, and that’s what makes it worth it! So – I may not be in Corporate America any longer, but I’m certainly bogged down working. However, the beauty is that I can do my jobs from anywhere in the world!
Enough about work… let’s celebrate the real fun stuff – 3 years of traveling! While in Mongolia, I took some time to reflect upon my 3 years of travel. Wonderful memories came floating back – some good, and some that were memorable due to the struggle. I decided to jot down some of the first things that came to me. Here are some of my favorite memories over the past 3 years of traveling. If you have been following me for 3 years, then this is old news. However, if you joined me somewhere in the middle, you may want to check these old posts out.
- I was banished from Kilimanjaro due to altitude sickness and watched the rest of my group summit.
- My last day of volunteer teaching in India. One of the few times that as an adult I couldn’t hold back tears.
- The smell of the Mombassa market.
- Struggling for answers on what to do with my life while on a vomit-filled bus in Morocco.
- Being jumped by a monkey in Bali and losing an earring in the scuffle.
- My first hilltribe trekking and homestays in Thailand, I’ll never look at a rat the same way again.
- Living in Sorrento, Italy, for a month, eating, drinking, and murdering the language
- Going on a massive hunt to see the goats that climbed trees in Morocco – success!
- During my USA road trip, I stopped in Ozark, Arkansas, and drank Bud Light with the locals.
- Sleeping outside under the stars in the Sahara Desert
- Playing volleyball in the Gobi Desert (That story is coming out this month!)
- Turning the corner on a grueling hike and seeing the jaw-dropping Batad rice terraces.
- On my Mongolian bus ride where the whole bus joined in and sang songs.
- The freak blizzard in China, praying I would get back to Shangri-la alive
- Bac Ha Market – still my favorite market in the world
- My isolation in Nepal and learning how to remove leeches
- Taking my motorbike out on the streets for the first time in Vietnam
- The moment I was on a bus in New Zealand, looking out across the stunning landscape, I knew that I would never be satisfied with ‘normal life’ again. A scary and exciting thought. I never actually wrote about it, but it’s a very vivid memory that I refer to often as one of my most memorable moments of traveling.
I invite you to sit back, relax, have some cake and , and toast the celebration!
Sherry—this post is an inspiration. Going to digest the posts you cited. What an amazing achievement. Congratulations on three years!
Daniel – thanks for the kind words! Life is really unpredictable; just the way I like it! I’m going out celebrating tonight in Saigon!
Congrats! – I’ve just passed 2 years myself
Noticed that sabbaticals is spelt wrong on the web site image.
Thanks Sladescross – I had used an old image – corrected now! Cheers!
I am so inspired. I hope one day I will get to travel the world.
Congratulations, Sherry. You deserve to throw yourself a party for such an accomplishment – you only need to ask youself…but, where? Cheers!
Congrats on keeping the adventure alive! I love being able to put together lists like you did with what was accomplished during the past few years.
That’s too bad about Kilimanjaro. I would have to substitute my decision not to try for Annapurna Base Camp due to “exhaustion” and while not quite so high, it took a long time for me to get over that experience (and not deeming it a “failure” to be specific). Good learning experience!
Hi Sherry,
Congratulations for 3 years on the road!! Three candles. I remember when you had 3 candles on a birthday cake, a photo some where will verify that.
Mom and I could not hold up our candles for our 50th as we would probably need the local fire department here for protection. How did we stand each other for so long?? I think that we both decided independently and without saying it to each other that: we would NOT let NOT getting along be an option. Here we are at this time and still have that plan.
DAD
Congrats! Three years is amazing. 🙂
Happy anniversary! Three years seems like a long time to be away but when you find yourself actually doing it, it’s amazing how fast it actually goes. I’m approaching my own two year anniversay away from the corporate world and it feels great!
I love your idea for a post listing all of your memories and related posts. It’s a great way for new readers like me to catch up on what you’ve been up to. You’ve done some amazing stuff.
@Dave – sorry to hear abt Annapurna base camp! I’m heading to Nepal next to hike the Annapurna circuit and make a stop at the basecamp – I’m hoping my lungs will hold out this time!
@Dad, thanks for not displaying the photo of me at my 3 yr bday party! Congrats on your big accomplishment – 50 years!!
We’ll celebrate when I get home!
Sherry
A belated congratulation. What an inspiring post. Love the round up on your past 3 years. Fun read!
Well done, it all takes hard work and perseverence – there’s no short cuts but I’m sure the results will be worth it in the end.
Congrats to you on being free!
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