This is the eleventh article following The Irony of Quitting My Job to Take a Sabbatical, the first in a series on what I learned and what I’d recommend from quitting my job to take a six-month sabbatical (without another job in sight). In my previous post, I shared several realizations about the value of quitting from the day I turned in my notice to when I walked out the office building, never to return. Here, I talk about my early sabbatical days and the real purpose of a sabbatical.

“Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.” 

― John Lubbock

It was the first Monday after my last day of work. That Friday, my husband, cousin and I had gone out for a celebratory dinner and I tried my first (and likely, last) cigar. The cigar was a novelty act, more a symbol of the new chapter in my life than something I wanted to try out.

My cousin was staying with us during his internship, adding up to a household of three that summer. Every morning, he and my husband walked out the door for their jobs and left me to myself.

An introvert’s dream—or so I thought.Continue Reading