the road warrior

Two weeks ago, I met up with a former co-worker, John who was passing through Shanghai in the midst of an extended hiatus.

Me and John were co-workers at a prestigious investment bank's IT department on Wall Street. The culture at that firm was work, work and more work. Both me and John are about the same age and we both left the firm in the same year. We both had an extended hiatus traveling the world. In my case it was 5 months in Asia, for John it has been over 2 years and counting.

I think we have this in common because we are both in our mid 30's and it is a time where people like us have a good deal of work experience and many battle scars to show for it. It is a time in one's life where one is done proving oneself at the workplace. Some people get burned out and I guess we are in that group.

When I was traveling with my wife for those 5 months in Asia, it was the most liberating experience in my life. Just seeing parts of the world that are so unfamiliar from home was such an eye-opening experience. I don't think I view things in the same way ever since. In many ways that experience has continued here in Shanghai.

As for John, he is not done traveling after over 2 years. He plans to continue traveling for another year before settling down to "regular" life. It would be safe to say "regular" life would never be the same.

Me and my wife have talked about possibly taking another break after we get our fill of Shanghai sometime in our future. My belief is that since you only live once, you might as well get the most out of it.