I am enjoying life now.
No no, I am not yet retired.
And no, it’s not that I am living a life of luxury.
It’s just that now, I have more time for myself.
So what exactly am I are to?
The thing is, I have taken a sabbatical from work.
For six months. I wish it could be longer, but unfortunately the organisation that I am currently employed to will not be able to accede to anything longer.
And really 6 months is better than nothing.
And I am enjoying the benefits of this sabbatical.
It’s not like I am leading a really cool life right now, you know sipping latte at cafes while blogging in the humid afternoon.
Nor meeting up with my girlfriends for the “girls night out” kinda thing.
In fact, a better definition would probably be a stay-at-home- mum.
And I am totally enjoying it. (For now.)
The stay at home part, yes. The mom part, now and then :p (just kidding).
I don’t wake up on monday morning feeling the blues.
In fact, every single day feels like the weekend to me.
There’s no stress from work.
And I feel so much more radiant, and healthier (although I have slacked off on my diet recently, need to get back to healthier food selection)
And I have gained weight!
Which is a huge deal for me. In fact, throughout my both pregnancies, I gained very little weight, and as a result, my babies born were pretty small (especially Ally). And part of it was also because of work related stress and hours.
And now that I am not working, and I have no timelines to think about, nor bosses’ moods to mitigate. Life has never been better.
You see, I don’t hate my job.
And in fact, I enjoy it sometimes.
But I think I had suffered from a burnout.
And as such, I am glad that I have this break to gather myself again.
And at the same time, spend some quality time with my loved ones.
A friend of mine was asking me if I had not contemplated going on a vacation or something since I am on such a long break.
Which got me thinking.
In fact, I don’t really have such a strong desire to go on vacation now compared to when I was working.
I guess when you are at work, you look forward to the holidays and vacation time, as those are our little “escapes” from work.
But when you are living your daily life as though it is the weekend everyday, seriously, you don’t really feel like you need to escape to anything.
I do not deny that sometimes I will fantasize lying on an idyllic beach somewhere sipping coconuts. But the desire is not that strong anymore.
So where will we go from here?
In fact, the lack of income from these few months might move our timeline back a little.
And perhaps, I will get so used to this that I might want to extend it further, which might mean leaving my employment entirely etc.
For now, we don’t yet know.
I am just enjoying the moments. Savouring them.
And perhaps, giving retirement a trial at the same time.
Perhaps in a few month’s time, I’ll get tired of this and want to head back to work.
Or perhaps, I will want to end this sabbatical earlier because I am sick of babysitting.
Sometimes, it’s great to live life as it is, without overthinking on your choice.
But having said that, Dave and I are glad that we have the resources that allows me to go on this sabbatical.
And having this choice, is priceless.
Kate,
Enjoy your sabbatical!
Not everyone “listens” to their body and soul 😉
A “pit stop” is to allow us to come back recharged and refreshed for the next leg of our journeys!
Cheers!
Hi SMOL,
Yes I think these breaks are so important to prevent us from”breaking”! In fact, I was already contemplating of resigning if this wasn’t “allowed” by my employer. Am glad that they did 😊
I wish they offer a sabbatical where I work because it is very important to recharge. Taking a few days or couple of weeks at a time is nice but then you try to jam pack your vacation to make the most of it. Enjoy your time off from work!
Yes that is something that is not offered in a lot of organizations. I wish more employers would appreciate the fact how helpful sabbaticals are for their employees. Having said that, there’s also that headcount loss they need to mitigate ….
I’ve been trying to gain weight, but I just don’t have much appetite and the constant stress at work makes my head throb and makes me uneasy. I wish I had the courage to take a short 3 mths break too but at this stage, I’m not willing to forgo the monthly income 🤭 great sharing!
You’ll be surprise what stress can do to your body. I have some girlfriends who have been trying to get pregnant for ages but couldn’t for various reasons. After they left their stressful jobs, for some reason, they all got pregnant eventually….
Kate,
It’s great to have the sabbatical to recharge yourself. You will get to learn more about your preferences through the break.
WTK
Yes most definitely. In fact I have started to realize some subtle changes in me too!
Thats great Kate, well done on getting yourself a sabbatical. It’s a purple unicorn in the Asian context 😉
Enjoy the time with the kids, as hairy as it can get at times 😉 They grow so fast, Coco#2 has 3 teeth already and sprouting 3 more. Where dis my toothless bubba go??
On a more tactical note, can you share how you approached the topic of a sabbatical? What are your top tips to a succesful sabbatical 😀
For my case there were quite a few considerations and reasons behind why I decided to go in a sabbatical. One is the burnout which I had mentioned and the other one was because of my kid. Ashton has some developmental issues (which are not life threatening) and I wanted to be with him during this time as he undergoes “corrective therapy”. My organization was understanding of this and thus granted me the sabbatical. I don’t really have any tips for a good sabbatical but I would think that innately, we have our reasons for wanting one and if the sabbatical meets and achieves those objectives, I would think that it is successful? Hope that makes sense?
Hi Kate,
Nothing beats being with the kid who needs care in this period.
WTK
Agree. Priorities 😊
Wow Kate, even more amazing that you got your time off to support Ashton.
Thanks for sharing. I suppose I was looking at how to bring up the conversation with employers without it turning into a nightmare 🙂 I would like to believe an open and honest conversation will yield results.
In addition to that, I was already prepared to resign if that was not granted so it was quite easy for me to broach the topic. Although the negotiation did come with strings attached…..
Oh really? Hmm, tricky tricky ! Wonderul what being on the cusp of FI allows you to do though. High 5!
And at the end of the day, priorities! 🙂