Preparing the break from my regular life and “No, I don’t want to talk to a psychologist”

In this post you find a little checklist on what preparations I found necessary before leaving to spend a year travelling and working abroad. And I'm telling how my story went on after I took the decision to leave - intending to show: it can work out fine! :-)

But taking the decision was only one thing. Deciding where to work voluntarily another. And telling my family and friends that I leave, quit the job, rent my apartment etc was yet another.

‘Are you sure you not better want to talk to a psychologist?’ one friend asked (... yes, really…). Other comments ranged from ‘... but why India???’ to ‘I would never do that’. But eventually I got great support from my environment in the quite intense preparation phase. Here is how it went:

Quitting the job…
I honestly felt bad to tell my boss I quit - as it’s probably normal, I felt like causing him even more problems than he had anyways. But his reaction was fantastic: he offered to arrange a sabbatical agreement for me. This means I had the chance to quit my job in order to realize my plans, but at the same time I got a guarantee to get offered a comparable position at the company 12 months later. This makes everything much easier… (also for my very worried dad :-))

Telling family and friends...
I was not very happy before deciding to leave, and some knew about that. One friend said ‘it’s great you smile nevertheless’, another one even ‘I haven’t seen the sunshine girl for a long time’. So, feeling that with the decision I was really happy and motivated, people were glad for me. Knowing we would miss each other saying goodbye was not easy - but now, after 4 months absence, 3 visits of friends are scheduled and what’s app proves to be a great invention: with some people I talk/ write even more than before!

Deciding to do a project for Managers without borders...
I felt like not only doing something good for me, but also trying to do something good for others during my break. Research resulted in a lot of ideas: from volunteering at a turtle farm in Indonesia to being a teacher in the Philippines. But when a friend told me about Mwb, I immediately knew: that’s it. I would be able to use my professional experience to help an institution in need. After a workshop and interviews with MwB it was decided: I would go to South-India, helping a little NGO to strengthen their setup to become more sustainable.

Getting prepared...
It took 4 months between decision and departure. Here’s a list of things I got settled in this period, I hope it might help other off-the-path-Steemians :-)

1. Employer: don’t forget to ask for an (interim) certificate before you leave!
2. Accounts: change all regularly payable bills to direct debit, get Visa AND Master Card (some don’t accept Visa, especially in Asia)
3. Contracts: check all existing ones whether cancellation is possible/ makes sense (ranging from gym to insurances to car/travel arrangements...)
4. Health insurance: if available, make sure insurance in home country covers until you leave (voluntary insurance might be required after quitting the job) but is cancelled for the time you’re abroad, get a long-term travel (!) insurance —> some insurances cover only a max. travel duration of 3 months
5. General health: start early getting vaccinations, and make sure you obtain a health certificate in english language as well as some advice for your first aid kit (in addition I will write a separate post :-)).
6. Retirement insurance etc: check whether voluntary insurance makes sense for the duration of your absence (in my case: no).
7. Travel documents: make sure your passport is valid for 6 months after your return (precondition for entering some countries) and has enough empty pages that want to be filled, get and international drivers license (which is only valid in combination with your local one - so take both with you!)
8. Apartment: if you rent it temporarily and furnished, make sure to collect all bills for expenses related to furnitures etc for tax declaration... I rented it through an agency: it did not work otherwise. And be sure to place an order to forward your mail temporarily to a person you trust.
9. Job center: it might be necessary to make sure the job center knows about your absence, in my case it was necessary to ensure full health insurance coverage upon my return (no, I did not understand why :-))
10. Equipment: that‘s worth a separate post, look for ‚The content of my annoyingly big backpack and why I love every piece in it‘!
11. Authorities: I organized my family to be officially able to act in my name... annoying procedure, but I felt better with it.
12. Transparency: I scanned all important documents and made them accessible online (took ages) to make sure I can deal with issues from abroad. Also scan passport etc.!
13. Car: if you have one and want to sell it, start early with taking pictures etc. and advertising it online…

These were the things I dealt with… next to handing over my job in a proper way and organizing my stay in India, which was the first stop of my trip. Bottom line: I recommend everyone planning to go abroad for some months to allow for some preparation time… although I’m pretty sure it is also possible to do things a little less obsessed ;-) But I left happily, feeling everything is sorted :-)

Dear Steemians, if you have any questions, please ask: I'm more than happy to share!