-6 days…

Well today was my (Saben’s) last day of work and I feel a little strange about it. I have never been unemployed since my first job almost a decade ago and have always thought of my job (this one or previous ones) as a way to classify myself.

One of the first questions people ask when meeting someone new is “what do you do?” and the answer is always “I work in …” or “I work for…”. As a society we classify our lives by our profession, not by the things that we love or enjoy or hold dear. I believe it’s this classification that I feel is strangely missing. I feel free to classify myself by the sum of my life and not by how I pay the bills.

I really did enjoy the place where I worked and the people there were fantastic to work with, yet I still feel happy leaving. Not because I don’t have to “work” anymore– I find satisfaction in the work that I do, but I am happy because I feel a sense of freedom. Freedom from the 9-5 (or 7-3:30 in my case) scheduled life, a freedom to not know what day it is and not care that I don’t know what day it is, but most of all the freedom to go to bed at night and have no idea what adventure awaits in the morning.

It would be lying to say that I am not a little scared about leaving my (very) stable job in the middle of a recession. I know that there are many people out there struggling to find a job or hang on to the one they have and here I am throwing mine away, but I do feel that this adventure is worth the risk. As much as it is cliche to say it, this really is a once in a lifetime opportunity. I will have the rest of my life to work and be stable. For now I want instability, I want adventure, I want the unknown.

So what do I do?…I live.