As some of you may know, in November I took a 6 month sabbatical. I made this decision for a number of reason;
- In 2020 I started a big solo backpacking trip after I finished university, but left at the end of January 2020, so I didn’t last long until the pandemic forced me to go home
- I’d had a really really difficult 2023. I’d lost a very close family friend very unexpectedly at the start of the year, and a school friend very soon after. My mental health was spiralling. I was finding my project work very detrimental to my wellbeing and confidence and I was heading towards a big burn out.
- I was living in an awful rented house riddled with thick black mould with my sister. She’d just moved in with her partner, mine moved in temporarily and we knew we wanted (and needed for my own health) to leave the house, so felt like a good time to move out, not sign up for another house and go travel.
It just felt like the right time, like everything was pointing me in the direction of making this big decision. So I did it. And in late May I returned home and back to work.
I’d be writing a blog while I was away, about my travels (although I’m a good 2 months behind on that now!! I will get back to finishing that once I’m properly settled back into UK life.) But I wanted to write a reflective piec about my trip and what I’ve learnt from travelling and taking such an extended period of time away from the 9–5 world.
What did I do for 6 months?
For 6 months my partner and I were travelling Asia with just a hand luggage size backpack. We visited 7 countries; Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia. Throughout these 7 countries, we saw such a vast variety of landscapes, cultures, environments and experiences and learnt more than I could ever have imagined, about the countries we visited, about myself and about my relationship.
Full time travelling is very different to being on holiday
Although I had been on a short solo trip before the pandemic, this was my first experience of full time, longer term travel. Travelling means frequently spending whole mornings in a laundrette doing washing and carving our time for other mundane life admin things like sorting SIM cards, getting haircuts, groceries shopping and unexpected hospital visits. It means often moving from place to place every 4–5 days and constantly adapting to the new environments and quite often languages, while constantly tracking and thinking about your tiny budget and whether you’re on track or over budget. Travelling is incredible, but exhausting; by the end of our 6 months we found ourselves completely decision fatigued from continuously making big and often complex decisions on what/where we go next every single day for 6 months.
But it also means seeing such a variety of cultures and communities, meeting the most incredible and inspiring people and experiencing the most beautiful sights I’ve ever seen.
Stepping away from what’s expected of you is hard.
Stepping back from the career ladder and a great job, putting all our belongings in storage and giving up our rented home to ‘be a backpacker’ for 6 months filled me with so much imposter syndrome, guilt and anxiety of judgement when we first left. And to an extent throughout my trip.
Career breaks often come with lots of assumptions, stereotyping and negative connotations. Throughout my trip I was often asked by people we met ‘how the heck did you wangle 6 months off work’. It took me a while to stop reply with a timid ‘ahhh ha uh yeah I guess I’m just lucky’, and instead something more along the lines of how I’d worked hard to reach a point in my career where I could do this and show my employer I’m worth keeping in the organisation while I pursue personal dreams.
Lots of my feelings of guilt centred around whether my sabbatical was ‘meaningful enough’, I wasn’t writing a book, or studying, or volunteering full time, I was ‘on a long holiday’. But, while I was away I made a lot of new connections on platforms like LinkedIn with people who had also taken sabbaticals and were doing all kinds of different things, who talked openly about the value of this time away but the guilt society puts on us for doing this, which was very refreshing and reassuring to see!
Seeing the world in this way is such a privilege and honour.
Taking 6 months away to travel is not something everyone has the opportunity to experience, and especially the local people we were meeting and interacting with on a daily basis. Many people we spoke to often talked about how they wish they could travel and see new parts of the world, or even just other areas of their own countries. But where they were not able to do that right now, interacting with people like us who had travelled to their country and could share insights into our home countries, our experiences in other countries and help them practise English was such a valuable experience for them also. Which was ultimately a good and humbling reminder about the privilege we come from being from such a well developed part of the world where travel is often taken for granted.
With that in mind we made conscious efforts to support local communities and people through eating at local spots, shopping from small locally owned shops or carts, and importantly taking every opportunity to learn from local people and immerse ourselves in their world with grace and humility.
Finding time for hobbies and reflection is so important.
Although we were often very busy moving from place to place or having jam-packed days, there were also days where we were simply resting and taking things easy. I often found myself during these days reflecting on my ‘normal’ life back home and thinking about my future. Which was amazing, and felt like a luxury! Life can be so fast paced, it’s often hard to take a step back and think about how things are going, what’s important to you and what do you want more / less of. My partner found this time particularly useful as he’s was starting a big career change on our return to the UK, so spent lots of this time thinking about what the future might look like for him and how he might achieve his goals. That reflection time was so valuable for him, he landed a new job and the start of a new career within 7 days of coming home 🎉
These down days also offered opportunities to pick up new habits, or hone existing ones. I’ve been writing work weeknotes for about 3 years, on and off now, and before we started this trip I decided I wanted to start writing travel posts about our trip. This was a new challenge for me, I enjoy writing but find it challenged, though I felt safe in my work weeknote world. So this was new content and new ways of talking about things. But I loved writing these. It was a great way to switch off on down days, pass the time on travel days, and also to reflect on and document our trip. It’s been nice to craft out proper time to dedicate to things like writing and pushing myself out of my comfort zone.
I also found myself really enjoying exposure to new languages, and loved learning them. I definetly wouldn’t describe myself as a natural language person. I find learning new languages very challenging. But I really enjoyed dedicating time in each country to learn as much of the language as I could, even if it was a few greetings and questions to ask locals. And at the end of my trip, found myself 40 days deep in the cycle of Duolingo’s passive aggressive streak learning Indonesia (which is also very close to the Malay language spoken in Malaysia).
What else did I learn?
- Language barriers aren’t barriers, they’re opportunities. It’s a chance to learn about other languages, think about other ways to communicate such as through signing, your body language and facial expressions. It’s also a really helpful reminder to consider how you say things. When we met people with some basic english, we had to really watch how we’d say things, and not fall into using slang, local dialect or things like metaphors that don’t translate well.
- Night buses are a great way to save money and time, but also a great way to do your back in and get zero sleep.
- Snorkelling in the middle of the sea is one of the most incredible things I’ve ever done, but also absolutely terrifying the first time. It’s also a great way to get sunburnt, despite how often you reapply suncream…
- ALWAYS eat places without an English menu. I guarantee it’ll be the best meals you’ve had even if it feels overwhelming to start with.
- Being really ill abroad sucks, but I’m thankful for access to global healthcare, for travel insurance and have an increased appreciation for the NHS which we all be guilty of taking for granted at times.
- Service design is clearly just the way my brain works. I couldn’t switch it off! I found myself often writing notes or even taking photos of bad (or very occasionally good) services. Much to my partners entertainment. Top tip, never ever try and add luggage to a Cebu Airways flight.
- Walking 20,000+ steps a day won’t make up for the amount of (unreal) food you’re eating and that is more than okay because the food is so worth it.
- Finally, it’s okay not to enjoy every second. If you want to do nothing for a week, do it. If you’re in a down mood and need some time, that’s okay. It’s your trip, and no one elses.
I cannot recommend enough how powerful, valuable, rewarding and incredible it was to take this time off. I have learnt more about myself in the last 6 months than I have in a long time. I’ve learnt how to better communicate with other people and with myself. I’ve learnt I am a much more emotional and intellectually strong person than I ever gave myself credit for. And, I’ve come back with a much better view of what I want from my personal and professional life moving forward, and how I plan to achieve that😎
If you get the chance, take some time for you. It doesn’t need to be 6 months. It doesn’t need to involve nightbusing your way across Asia. It can be whatever you want it to be, it’ll be rewarding no matter what.
