The Writer’s Coin

About a year ago when I was looking for a new job, I started thinking about how I’d like to transition from my old job to the new one (when I got it). I was talking to M about it and I mentioned how I had always meant to live at this beach house my family owns for like a month or something and live the life of a “writer.” I had it all planned out too: in the mornings I would get up and ride my bike down the main street (it’s a tiny town) and get some breakfast, read the paper or whatever book I’m reading at the time, and then maybe walk back (“I’ll pick up the bike later OK?”). Then I would sit down to write (the novel? stories maybe? an essay?) and after a few hours of that I would go down to the beach and maybe take in the sun, think about things, and go rowing for an hour to get in the exercise. After that I’d come back up, have a quick lunch, and get back to work. At night I would read and maybe edit what I did the day before.

Rinse, repeat, awesome.

Now here is when you know you’ve got something special because M was a great sport about it. I was clearly lost in this fantasy and she just said to me, “Well, you should do it then.” I had also been telling her about the time I had around a jaw surgery I had done where I had over 2 years to plan this out and do it. And I didn’t. Granted, I did travel to Paris and live a somewhat similar life to the fantasy I shared with M, but it wasn’t the same.

But that was it: “You should do it then.”

And I was like “How am I going to do that? When?” Plus the obvious question of just leaving her alone and being away from her like that. She said that when I found my next job I should take time off between them and go do it. Maybe not a month but a couple of weeks would work.

It was like a revelation. The fact that she had come up with this idea made it all the more powerful. It made it more possible. So I hung onto that dream for a few weeks and the longer and longer the job search got drawn out, the less I thought about doing it.

When I finally got the new job, I was so happy that all I could think about was starting right away. I didn’t even ask about the possibility of taking a couple of weeks off to do something remotely like what I had planned.

Has anyone else taken 2–4 weeks off between jobs? I mean telling your new job that you want to start in four weeks (two to give notice and two to do whatever)? Is that an OK thing to do?

Just the thought of doing it gets me excited again and, even though I’m sure it wouldn’t turn out exactly the way it is in my head, I think M’s right: it’s important that I just go out and do it if it’s that important to me.

If you’re interested in the topic, Brip Blap has a great series on sabbaticals over on his blog.

Tags: , between jobs, sabbatical, taking time off