I Quit My Job and Travelled Around Europe For 10 Days. Here’s What I Learned.
The trip wasn’t great but the lessons were
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My last day at work was June 1.
Three days later, I was on a flight to Paris with my parents, kicking off our 10-day Europe trip that was long overdue.
After months of seeing people quitting their job to travel around Europe on Instagram reels, I finally manifested one of my own.
And it was not good.
Having lived in The Netherlands for 3 years and visiting other countries off-season, returning as a tourist was a big mistake.
But this mediocre trip still taught me a few big lessons that I shall keep close to my heart.
#1 I’m extremely privileged
With the ongoing recession and how difficult it is to get a job nowadays, I had the luxury of quitting on my own will, traveling across the world, and still having enough money saved up to not ask for my parents’ support for at least 6 months from now.
That is a testament to how privileged I am.
Of course, I work hard to get to where I am.
But constantly grinding (and the cha-ching that came with it) without setting aside time to reflect turned me into a crybaby who complained about the littlest inconvenience.
It was only when I stood on the deck of a boat going around the Seine River taking in the sun and breeze of Paris in June did I realize there were so many things to be grateful for.
#2 You’ll truly know how you feel about your job on the last morning at work
I complained a lot while I was working full-time, mostly about work.
But on the last morning at work, I didn’t cling to anything that made me upset.
Rather, I missed the lessons I’d learned, the people I met, all those afternoons I and my colleagues ordered snacks and chatted away, and all the evenings we spent together working overtime.
I was wistful, which I can’t say the same for my previous full-time job. That’s when I knew how I really felt about my…
