Difficulties of Leaving for a Sabbatical (All The Feels!)
In preparation for leaving for a sabbatical, we knew there would be difficulties. After we read A Year Off by Alexandra and David Brown, we thought “this sounds totally doable”. Leave the corporate craziness and embark on our favorite activity in the world, traveling, for a 9 month Sabbatical? Sounds incredible!
We went in with eyes wide open (as much as possible) and anticipated difficulties in taking the plunge – deciding on locations, planning out the logistics, leaving family and friends in SF, and facing the fear of quitting our jobs would be scary. Something we were looking forward too was being free – jobless and homeless – with few possessions and few responsibilities. We wanted to be nomadic in every sense of the word. But on this side of the departure, we can say that it turned out to be surprisingly difficult to leave.
Leaving Friends and Family
We are extremely fortunate to have supportive friends and family, who we will miss dearly. A big thank you to them for their support as we leave for a sabbatical! We hope they can come visit us during some portion of the trip.
Logistics
Despite long term travel being such a trend, there were a number of things we had to figure out for ourselves. So much so that we wrote a whole other post here.
The Pain (and Catharsis) of Cleansing
By the time we decided to embark on this journey, we had lived our apartment in San Francisco for 6.5 years and lived in the city for 8. For me, this was the longest I (Ashleigh) had ever lived anywhere. We moved every few years as a kid, albeit within the same hometown. You build up a lot of things in that kind of timeframe. Possessions tend to collect and along them memories of the time/place/people attached to them. Even for those who are more religious about it, no amount of spring cleaning can bring the cleanse of a true departure.
As we planned this departure, we began to realize that leaving our apartment and the city behind required a deep and thorough cleansing of our stuff and our emotional connections. So great, let’s do it! Let’s let it go and keep the really important things – no problem, we got this! As logical and efficient people, it was another task on the list. And it remained a task, until we were midway through it, siting on the floor surrounded by a pile of boxes thinking we’d made THE biggest mistake of our lives. Turns out these things are actually a process!
I won’t pretend that we aren’t 100% classic Americans – meaning we own A LOT of stuff, even for a 650 sq ft apartment. We started this process 2 months prior to departure, going room by room. Each item reviewed for value and the question asked about if it was truly needed. We boxed up some, opting for a storage unit, but many of our things went to a new home: Facebook Marketplace for sale, our friends for safekeeping and interim use, Goodwill, or the trash. It’s hard to watch $1000s flow out of your possession, but in that process, there is a release of the burden of so much STUFF. Did I really need those 5 bags of clothes when my life will fit in a 70L backpack? Not one bit. Did it hurt to let it go? Maybe just a little (or A LOT).
On this side of the process, and officially homeless for the first time in my life, I can say that we value stuff far too much. Do I need 5 charger cables, 15 pairs of pants, 20 pairs of shoes, or that pile of old t-shirts? The answer is a resounding NO. Being released from that is freeing in its own right. But along with that release came a change of perspective that is so much more valuable. I don’t need to stuff to be happy and more importantly I can live with A LOT less than our modern society suggests.
Lessons for us: Don’t underestimate the process of letting go. Take the time to do it properly. Recognize what you hope to achieve in the time away. Keep what is useful or truly valuable and define that as you will. [See Marie Kondo if you need some help]. We’ll see if we made the right choices in 9 months, but for now we’ve cleansed (mostly) in order to attempt a minimalist lifestyle.
