Go!

I’m 29 years old. I’m female, I have a bachelor’s degree, and I’m two quarters away from having a master’s degree. I live in a condo that I bought three years ago. Other than a mortgage, I don’t have any debt. I’m not married, and don’t have any kids. I have $34,000 in my savings account, but it’s dwindling, because I was just laid off from my job, which was being a video editor. I’ve always lived within my means, and I’ve never gone crazy with spending money. (Confession: one time I bought a $50 bottle of whiskey, and it was totally worth it, and I’m not sorry!) But I’m no longer revenue-generating because of this layoff. I find myself in need of some direction. My whole life I’ve played it safe and I’m wondering if I should give up the job search, buy a plane ticket, and go see the world?? Or if I should put my nose to the grindstone, update my resume, and see what kind of job I can land??

Buy a plane ticket! Buy one of those round-the-world ones, and then buy a (cheap?) bottle of whiskey to celebrate.*

*Wait, maybe don’t buy one of those round-the-world-ones — Hairpin pal Kate Blumm recently rounded the world (!), and calls RTW tickets “frighteningly inflexible” because you have to submit your entire itinerary ahead of time, which “defeated (for us) the purpose of buying that fare in the first place.” (But “playing with the OneWorld interactive RTW map-planner thingy is incredibly fun and addictive.”) Also: “though we were covering a lot of ground, when we started researching the actual one-way prices they ended up coming in UNDER what the round-the-world costs. This may have just been a quirk of our specific route, but definitely worth looking into before buying.” In any case, go! GO! (Kate: “GO!”) And maybe rent your condo for income!