Almost five years ago, I graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill, but it didn’t feel celebratory. Thanks to the pandemic, our in-person graduation was canceled. My roommate and I spent graduation day in our college apartment with my family, reminiscing on the previous four years and wondering what a “normal” graduation would have been like.
My original postgrad plan was to take a gap year to travel throughout Southeast Asia. My first stop would have been Thailand, and I already had my flights and Airbnbs lined up. Unfortunately, that plan was scrapped, so I used my savings to move to a nearby city and explored a few different career paths.
I love working with people, so I took a real estate course. I enjoyed it, but I never took the exam because I could tell it wasn’t the right fit. I also applied for jobs in the homeless services field, where I had worked throughout college. Despite my experience and network, I didn’t even get an interview. At the time, this was soul-crushing.
Throughout that year, I was experiencing anxiety and depression. It felt like I had no real purpose or clear path for the future, which I had never experienced before. My lease on my apartment was ending, and the thought of renewing felt impossible. I was deeply unhappy, and my parents could feel it.
My mom suggested I revisit my nomad plans, so that’s exactly what I did.
I bought a one-way ticket to Italy
Within a month, I sold almost all of my belongings — couch, bed, pots and pans, patio furniture, and artwork. I stored a few boxes of mementos and valuables at my parents’ house. I then bought a one-way ticket to Italy.
I packed my remaining possessions into one suitcase, put my cat, Isabelle, in a carrier, and took off without looking back.
I spent my first month in Turin, Italy, and fell in love with the idea of full-time travel. I then spent five weeks in Croatia, some time in Paris and Portugal, and returned to Italy for the fall. At this point, I was blowing through my savings. I loved traveling, but I needed an income to keep it sustainable.
I made my own job
I was terrified at the thought of moving back to the US, so I did everything possible to continue my travel passion. The last thing I wanted was a full-time job with time zone constraints, so I needed to find a way to work for myself.
To my friends and family, my idea of full-time travel was unheard of and a story worth telling. I’d been told I was a decent writer, so with some encouragement, I began documenting my journey and exploring writing as a career path.
I published a few articles on Medium to get a portfolio and then used that to build my Upwork profile in January 2022. I accepted any gig I could get my hands on to further build out my profile, and slowly but surely, I started working with larger clients.
Once I had a solid portfolio and more experience, I could pitch directly to major publications. With each additional byline and a lot of networking, it became easier to land recurring clients where I could write about my experiences traveling and using credit cards.
My growth was exponential. Although the process took a couple of years, it felt as if all of my dreams had come true overnight.
Thriving in uncertainty 3 years later
Drowning in uncertainty in my first year out of college prepared me to thrive in uncertainty just a few years later. As a digital nomad, I don’t know where I’ll be living in a few months, and as a freelance writer, my workflow and client roster are constantly changing.
If you had talked to me in late 2020, I only wanted stability. I watched as all of my friends got jobs and moved to different cities around the country, and I felt like such a failure for being in the same place and not working toward anything.
Now, I see flexibility as a window of opportunity that can’t be closed. There are endless possibilities for what I can do with my day, month, year, and life. I’m not locked into a desk job that I don’t like. I get to be creative, write about my experiences traveling, and connect with other remote workers across the world.
This career and lifestyle still come with challenges, but they have made me into the person I am today.
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