In the past week, I made some pretty big changes in my life, all in support of our upcoming expedition around the world. Many of these changes are best summed up by borrowing a phrase from the great traveler and writer Somerset Maugham: "…he suddenly deserted his ordinary, secure world and starts a new life in totally alien surroundings."
The most drastic change that took place was quitting my job of nearly 6 years. For me, this job has represented my entire professional career. It was my first "real" job outside of college and graduate school and has been my home ever since. There is a little part of me that actually felt guilty about submitting my resignation 2 weeks ago. I liked the work that I was doing and enjoyed the company of my co-workers, however, I was going to have to leave in order to go on this journey. Now that my last day of employment has come and gone, I truly am finding myself in alien surroundings. My freetime is now being spent working on the logistics of the project and tying up loose ends with sponsors and supporters, and hopefully my experience as an auditor has allowed me to correctly budget and compensate for not having a job for the next three months.
I am definitely feeling a little more anxious these days and I guess only time will tell if I made the correct decision. Nonetheless, I did make the decision to quit a stable job with a consistent income source to go off and explore the unknown. It was a big step and one that some people could not make and some people actually advised me against. However, I have comfort in knowing that I, along with Steve and Duane, really believe in what we are doing and to quote a remarkable cinematic moment from Harold and Kumar go to White Castle, that the Academy overlooked, "the universe tends to unfold the way it should."
