When I left my job in February, I thought I was taking a short break from my corporate career. Not exactly a sabbatical and definitely not some great reinvention. Just some time to help me decompress, regroup and figure out what I was doing next. That was the whole plan, if you can even call it one.
I’d spent the last year of my career balancing a demanding senior leadership role while supporting multiple family members battling cancer. By the time February rolled around, I was too exhausted to juggle them both and just knew I needed time to support myself before deciding what to do next.
I wish I could tell you that I had an epiphany. I didn’t. The first month or so passed in a blur, but I guess that’s what happens when you are grieving. You can spend months anticipating the loss of someone you love but you don’t experience it truly until they are gone and then it hits all at once. Again. And again. Until you are drowning so deeply in the grief that it takes you months to swim up for breath.
For me, the first glimpses were in May or at least I thought so.
It had been a few months and I figured it was time to get back to some sense of normality. That’s what you do, isn’t it? You take some time off, dust yourself off and get back in there. And with a CV like mine, it wasn’t long before I started to get interviews.
At first, there was relief. I was offered a lucrative short-term contract role after making it through to the final call with the client, but ultimately turned it down because of some concerns that came up during that conversation.
Then I realised I wasn’t in the right state to go back. There was this deep sense of exhaustion that I couldn’t shake, no matter how long I slept. It wasn’t long before I realised I was still grieving and clearly not in the right headspace.
So I decided to take the summer off. Properly off.
For the first summer in a decade there were going to be no adult responsibilities. Just time to rest and get back to my usual self.
In July I spent a total of 9 days at home and came back with this deep desire to create and share my story. Encouraged by my best friend, I started exploring content creation and dived head first into all things hooks, editing and b-roll. For the first time in a while, I felt the same warm buzz I felt when I initially found SEO at the beginning of my career, and decided to see where that took me. The buzz was short-lived as I realised how much effort it took to be consistent and how keeping up felt like another job in itself.
August started and ended with what felt like a never-ending decluttering session.
I had this innate feeling to review and clear out every element of my life, like I was preparing and creating space for something new. I didn’t know what for, I still don't know, all I knew was I had to do it. It was also during this period that I started Successful on Paper and wrote my first article on adult friendships becoming another admin task. While creating short-form content was challenging, writing long-form was second nature and how I got into marketing in the first place.
Plot twist: apparently “taking some time off” still requires a financial plan
Enjoyed the story so far? Behind the paywall, I'm getting honest about what happens when a short break starts needing a financial plan. The options I'm weighing up, and why the most sensible one is the one my loved ones understand least.