I put in my notice at work; my last day is officially July 29th.  I’ve quit jobs before, but never without another one lined up, so this was a unique experience for me.  It’s simultaneously worrying and freeing thinking about the fact that a mere few weeks from now, I will be unemployed.  On one hand, giving up the security and comfort of a paycheck a week is pretty scary; a lot of people would love to have my job, and walking away seems almost counterintuitive.  On the other, the whole reason I started working in the first place was to save up for this trip, so I don’t feel too bad!

My hands were shaking as I was waiting for the meeting, which I wasn’t expecting.  I’ve been looking forward to dropping this particular bomb for years; quitting is the final, definite step in the trip planning process, and it’s exciting actually making concrete progress towards this longstanding goal.  I’ve even fantasized about making a big, dramatic, mic-dropping exit, although the fact that I actually like my job and company put a wrench in that plan.  In the moment, though, there was only one thought running through my mind — are you SURE about this?!

Obviously, the answer to that question is a solid “yes.”  I got through my oft-practiced spiel (without taking a breath, I’m pretty sure), and it couldn’t have gone better.  My manager was excited by our plans, and we ended up spending the majority of the meeting discussing our route and travel strategies, rather than the fact that I’m leaving the company.  He even offered to give us some tips on traveling around India (his home country); it’s always good to have a local’s perspective and advice, so that was much appreciated as well.

As you’d expect in an office setting, word spread fairly quickly, and the reaction has been overwhelmingly positive.  People are excited, curious, sometimes confused, but overall very supportive.  It’s odd, actually, talking about the trip at work.  It’s been a secret for so long that when someone comes up to me and asks about the trip as a whole, or about a particular location, my initial reaction is a rush of panic.  It still takes a second before I realize oh right, this is now a real thing happening in real life instead of just in my head.

I do still plan on working along the way a bit; one of the good things about web development is that as long as you have a computer and an internet connection, it’s not too hard to work from the road.  I’m planning on picking up smaller, short-term contracts and one-off jobs to boost our savings whenever they’re starting to look a bit low (so if anyone needs a website, let me know!)  I’ll also be working on some of my own projects, both to keep my skills sharp and because I think I’d miss development work too much if I avoided it entirely.

From here, it’s just a matter of getting all the loose ends tied up, which is still a bit overwhelming.  I’m sure we’ll look back at this point in time and say oh that was such a blur!  Right now, though, it’s a stressful, chaotic mess that seems impossible to resolve in the next two weeks (!!!).  I’m trying to take it one item at a time.  The fact that we’re working up until the day before we leave certainly doesn’t help, but we wanted to maximize our income while we still have it.  Hopefully you’ll see a post two weeks from now titled That Was Easy! — Until then, wish me luck.