“You did what?!?”“, my client asked, pretending he hadn’t heard me the first time. “I quit my job”, I repeated. Disbelief, amazement and lunacy are just a few of the reactions I’ve received from those who’ve learned of my most recent news. “You do realize how many stockbrokers are getting tossed onto the streets as a result of this horrible financial crisis, right?” My answer: Well, yes, I think I do … after all, this is only about the third or fourth series of layoffs & cutbacks I’ve endured during my last two decades on Wall Street. And yes, I suppose this one looks more ominous, but … isn’t it all about timing, anyway?
Jane, our eldest child, is graduating from high school this month, ready to depart for college and to begin the next series of life’s lessons. Wait a minute … she’s only 17 years old! If she leaves now, she’s never coming back – or, at least, not for any decent length of time. The time to act was NOW, and fortunately, Merrill Lynch (my employer for the past 14 years) was reeling from their own predicament and feeling the same way. In early April, the emailed “offer” to Merrill’s US employees for voluntary retirement landed in my inbox. “But isn’t 46 years of age too young to retire?”, I said to myself. The brain answered “yes” but the heart was not so easy to convince. Nor, I might add, was my wife. Colleen and I had been scheming for months about the possibilities of taking some time off to show the real world to our children. We’d recently concluded that we were running out of opportunities to make any further significant & lasting impressions on/with our kids … until April, those were just idle thoughts.
So … what’s the plan? Priority #1 is to get as far away from here as possible ... not forever, of course, but certainly long enough to appreciate why we choose to live here in the first place. Our adventure begins in August, when we’ll depart SFO for Europe (for 4-5 months) … from there it’s off to South America in early 2009 (for another 4-5 months) ... we plan to incorporate some pleasure travel, Church missionary and volunteer work (http://www.globalvolunteers.com) and Spanish language & cultural immersion.
Join us for the journey, won’t you ?
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3 comments:
You are really doing it! You guys are awesome. I hope you really keep up the blog so we can live your adventure vicariously. Know that you will have many people supporting you in prayer. God bless all of you.
Love you,
Dottie
You guys are amazing! I am so excited for all of you. BTW, I love the scripture you chose at the top of your blog. I have already started praying for you and will continue throughout your journey!
If only more people took advantage of everything out there! I talk about you guys quite often at work and we are all in amazement. :) I look forward to following your family's journeys along the way and hope that your volunteering in Poland will be a great experience to start it out, along with your N. Europe travels (well, if you want to consider the UK as part of Europe!).
-Lynsi
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