I'm trying to beat the laziness monster and at least write something every now and then. It's a little bit of catharsis.One year ago, I had just quit an internship at a big media outlet after just two months employed with them. It was a big decision but one that now sits comfortably with me.
Since then I've met a whole bunch of young people in similar boats to me. Those who found themselves annoyed and frustrated in their new jobs and quit.
I guess my heart wasn't really in the job from the start. Once I got into the role and found a whole mountain of negativity and burnt out workers I felt like quitting was a sensible option. I already had some savings in the bank and I started to think: "why am I here?" It wasn't as if the pay was fantastic. I made considerably more in a temporary job in Australia in a job that required no qualifications and two weeks training.
My main desire after finishing my degree was to travel. In my journal when I was 18 I wrote that my main ambition was to be traveling when I finished and four years later, that's what I was doing.The amount of things that I've done in this last year that I wouldn't' have otherwise done is incredible.. This is not meant to be a braggathon but here's a quick summary:
I travelled around New Zealand, spent a few months back in my home town catching up with my family. Went to Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Malaysia and revisited Jakarta. I worked three months in Perth and saved money for my European trip.
In January I lived in Italy for a month, got to see Rome and Venice and live with my girlfriend and some cool flatmates. Then I went to Netherlands, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Germany, Czech Republic, Britain, Italy again, Spain, Ireland and have just returned to Jakarta for language studies. I encountered many languages, cultures, museums, bars, people(I will write about the most interesting of them very soon), landmarks, climates, political situations and foods. I tanked up an enormous travel bill and have a much bigger carbon footprint than I'm comfortable with.
You can't really capture everything that happens in a year in just a few paragraphs..
It wasn't all sunshine and lollipops. Some days it was a grind and I certainly could have done with more sleep on the trip.
There were times when I was worried that I had made a mistake quitting so quickly, right at the start of my career. Did I throw away a great opportunity?
When I was in Europe I met heaps of people in their mid twenties still studying and still not sure what they were doing with their lives.. That, at least made me feel like I've still got time to make the most of my youth and see a bit of the world.
I've been very fortunate to be in a position where I can afford to travel..
I still wonder whether I would return to a journalism job.. I haven't applied for a single journalism job in the time since I quit and you start to worry. "Will I be able to get something this long out of the game?" My journalism lecturer did warn me that the longer I left it, the more graduates I would be competing with for jobs. He also said I had to prove my "hunger" for the job and I don't know if I've done that.
I would hope that someone can appreciate a bit of worldliness but that will remain to be seen. If I'm unlucky in that venture then it's back to Uni for a masters and I wan to do that anyway..
I've learned that it's best to make the most of your youth cause I remember and older journalist telling me that once the ball got rolling on her career, ten years passed by and she never travelled and had children.. Having a family isn't a prison and neither is a job but four weeks annual holiday on average makes long travels quite difficult.
My path wouldn't be right for everyone. There's a lot to be said for building contacts, getting a rep and getting experience. It would certainly make some people more employable. We're all dying someday though right? So - for me at least, it was liberating to just be free from Uni, from a job for 10 of the last 13 months.
There's no point in reflecting on other roads I might have taken cause this is it. I'm happier than I was this time last year and my eyes are that little bit more open than they were before.
If you hate your job, and you have some other options on the table, quit.. Life passes by too fast to be dissatisfied and as idealistic and cliched as it sounds, there is so much out there in the world to explore, new perspectives to be gained and different insights to be garnered.I'm still not sure what job I'll pursue but I just hope it's something I like. Perhaps I'll start my own business? Still plenty of time, right?
