I’m about to do something completely insane. I can’t believe it, but here it is:
I’m going to take six months off work.
It’s only seems insane, of course, because of my Soviet childhood (constant poverty) and American young adulthood (poverty during student years, replaced with “work like hell till retirement” mentality). Australians actually tend to take a gap year almost as a rite of passage into adulthood – travel the world and all that.
I’ve done the calculations – I can afford the bills, because I have a month of vacation and two months of “long service leave” accumulated. (Again, apologies to my hard-working American friends – I never knew of the long service leave concept until I moved down under). The plan is to turn three months of paid leave into six months of half-pay. There will be just a bit of travel, with already booked pre-honeymoon in December and a “proper” honeymoon in May, but otherwise it will be a 40-hour a week writing dream. The plan is to “try out” this writing gig full-time – write two sequels to Shizzle, Inc and really see what it would be like to work as an author.
I don’t know what will happen at the end – maybe I’d find that I miss the office and will come back with a vengeance, ready to climb the corporate ladder. Or I’d learn to appreciate the financial peace of mind my current job provides. Of course, I secretly hope that with two more books under the belt I might get the fuel necessary to make the dream I committed to on 16 October actually possible. Regardless, it will be the longest ever break from office and an adventure into a parallel reality all of my own making.
My mind is made up. Now I just have to convince my manager that it’s a good idea…
Ana Spoke, author 