embracing change

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn´t do than

by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. -Mark Twain

This is probably one of my favorite quotes right now, because it says soo much about what I am wondering about right now ... it´s amazing. Maybe it can even be sort of a guideline. I remember overhearing someone, who saw the quote stuck to my notebook, saying that one should never loose sight of this - because it is soo true. Indeed it is. Life constantly changes every second, and why not take the change to do something you really want right now than wait days, months, maybe years even. It might never happen. LikeI don´t really understand why someone´s always saving up most of one´s vacation days for later in the year, when now would be the perfect timing, even when you still have so many days available for later on. Why? Maybe something better comes up, why should I waste my free days right now? Just because!

So, I kept thinking about me going Down Under to work and travel for months now. Couldn´t quite decide wheter or not to take the plunge. Leaving behind my family and friends, is not the biggest problem, since having lived away in a few countries a few times over the years, I already learned that the true friends stick and the others won´t bother. What bothered me the most was, the gap that would be there when I would come back. Going there forever was not to be questioned, since that has never been the issue as of right now, in the first place. Nevertheless what I wondered about the most was what would I do about my "job situation" afterwards. Am I really that courageous to just quit and see what happens? Seriously? Not really. I really like my job and having starting in this company to get to where I am right now, I am not going to just give that up just like that. Because once gone, getting back in wouldn´t be as simple as that!

During my time in New Zealand two months ago, I met a lot of people who exactly just did that. Having left everything behind and started a new life for a period of time. They were saying that what keeps me from "throwing away the bowlines" and just do it, is the typical way of security thinking. What have you got to loose? True, but it´s not as easy as that. Coming back home, I was constantly wondering. Was I not courageous enough to just finally do it? Who and .. respectively what still keeps me here?! This seriously can not be IT. But maybe I am not that adventureous after all. What I´m definitely sure of is that I certainly will regret it years later, if I haven´t tried it and stayed. You are always wiser in the end, they say. Not this time, I say.

Having done some research I think I finally found the perfect solution to my urge to really travel the world - sabbatical leave it is. Being able to get a leave of absence for a up to a year and return back to your job might be the perfect solution. Hopefully my managers and I find the perfect solution for my planse. They just don´t really know it ... yet.

In the end I might finally be able to really do it and try something really different for sometime for real. :-) As scary as that may seem, I can´t wait.