The devil you know is a devil.

Now that we’ve been travelling for a month, I am starting to feel vaguely reflective. We’re only travelling for six months, but I am taking a year – a whole year! Off. Off from work, from the crushing weight of responsibilities associated with caring about work, about ‘the grind’ and the ‘hustle’ (god, I hate those words). A year off from my life, essentially.

A year to be me, to be free, to be at peace with my world.

I wish everyone could experience this. I felt jealous of people who went on maternity leave, and told them that, despite being a childfree by choicer person myself. They told me it’s easy… deferred leave. No baby required!

Genuis. Just genius.

I was reminded of the beauty and simplicity of living life for your own reasons recently when Ian and I went on an island tour to go snorkel with sea lions, a resident colony. We shared a tour with a group of Americans, and weirdly, a man from Victoria (he lives in Colwood). Eventually we got to chat with a few of the Americans, from Portland and from Eugene, OR. Only the cool Americans travel, and they were very unique.

One woman, Megan, told us that she was currently unemployed, as Ian is also. She came to a realization when she had her own dog-walking business in San Francisco that work just… isn’t it. Life is. Time you can never get back; money comes and goes. You can never pay someone enough to claw back that time you lost.

She came to this revelation when she was sitting at the bedside of a good friend who was dying. Surrounded by friends and family, they were experiencing the last, fleeting piece of life. Nobody on their deathbed wishes they ‘worked more’ and yet Megan found herself unwillingly thinking about her lost income, those opportunities she was passing up to make money, in that time she was spending with her lost friend.

She hated that feeling.

She moved to Portland, sold her business, and divorced her husband. She is now a free agent, someone who takes their life in their hands, and does something with it, anything, whatever.

I really resonated with that, as I, in the past few years, struggled with the idea of selfishness in time. You can’t get it back…

And that’s why, friends, I am spending six months in Mexico and a year of not working. It’s worth it. You are worth it. Your job, your commitments, your responsibilities… Is that all you are? I’ve heard from others who can take advantage of this deferred salary that they could never do what we are doing. They have stuff! They have to buy back pension! I couldn’t understand that.

Well… I can. I too had to make sacrifices. I put down my beloved rabbit Tucker, which made me feel like an absolute monster and it’s still something I am struggling to come to terms with. I have a horse (who is in the loving care of the best people ever!) and I have a house with-gasp-STUFF! Ian quit his job.

I too, have to buy back a year of pension.

In the end, it’s your life. Are you a martyr? I’m not. Not anymore. We are in an extremely privileged position to be in, it’s incredible. The devil you know is just that. A devil. Be bold, be brave, take a chance. You only get one crack at this.