The Importance of Taking Mini Retirement

It was in the middle of savannah in Africa last year and among the herd of thousands Zebra and Wildebeest when this idea came to me like a seagull took a dump in the sky and landed on my head. Can't ignore and pretend it didn't happen. Anyway I tried to brush this aside and concentrate back to this once in a lifetime moments that's happening within meters from me.

Back to my life in Christchurch, New Zealand this idea creeped its way back to me and reading some blogs, some people done it in their 20s, 30s, 40s. I started put real thoughts to it. It's also been over 12 years since I bid farewell to my root, Indonesia to try my luck overseas. That saying about grass is greener on the other side? Well, yes I bought that sh*t too. The relocation works well for me, financially and traveling wise. Though it means I also been missing out on what's mostly been happening with my family back home. After those years of blood, sweat & tears I made a promise to myself that 2018 is the year I should put my stuff away and take my backpack home and pursue this idea of mini retirement.  

Herds of Zebras in Maasai Mara

My mum is not getting younger although the ones who've met her before might be fooled by her look :p, another reason to take this long break is because I'd love to explore places that had become my backyard for the first 26 years of my life before I lived abroad. I'd like to take a walk down the memory lane as well, eating dishes that burst with flavours and induced me some endorphins from every bite, then hop on a train from Jakarta to Yogyakarta to grandma's place where we used to spend our school holidays with the whole family. I'd love to sit by the window and watch the world go by as it carves its way through the railway between lush of rice paddies, palm trees while reminisce on childhood memories. Growing up, we used to take both economy(3rd Class) or Fajar/Senja(2nd Class) train. Economy train, being the cheapest, the condition back then was appalling, the carriage cramped to over capacity, the air was stuffy because there was no AC, everyone was enduring around 12 hours journey. It's funny now when flashbacks came and visited me from time to time. I remember quite vividly how some me and & my sister had to sleep on the bed of newspaper under the seat that mum and aunty occupied, as well as tiny spaces between the seats. I was worried what if the seat above me collapse and flatten me into pancake. What would my last thought be before I die?!
 

 

There were so many stops along the way , not just stations, random ones too, in the middle of rice paddies or something. It just stopped out of nowhere and waited for premium train to pass us. It could take ages at times. Wish I knew what middle finger was for back then. There was constant street vendors from nearby villages and stations that hopped into the carriage to sell food like instant noodle, hot beverages, snacks etc. They walked back and forth, over people who were sitting in the hallway, I wonder how many toes they have accidently stepped on. Ah the joy of traveling 3rd class eh? What about some random vendor who placed his paper wrapped rice dish onto someone's cheek who was asleep at 3 o'clock in the morning or deaf tone street entertainer who were singing before us & asking for some loose change after damaging our ear drums. That's pretty much the array of entertainment we had on this never ending trip to grandma's. Mum usually packed enough food to last us the whole journey however there were few times that we got some warm peanuts or hot beverages too. I love when she packed simple food like homemade rice and Indonesian style fried chicken and we ate it together among all the chaos in the background.

 

Morning walk with this hunk in Zimbabwe

 

Could these flashbacks try to send me a message? To take a break and go home and spend some quality time with my family, the people who supported me the most and visited me countless times in my dreams? When you live abroad, away from the comfort of their existence, your mind is constantly divided into two places and this is always a battle you have to choose.  

 

 

Apart from this, traveling around Indonesia would also be something that has been put aside for a while and the time to do it is finally here. Activities like attending yoga classes & volunteering at local shelter in Bali; visiting exotic endangered wildlife like Orangutan in Sumatra then to Flores to lurk on Komodo, prehistoric looking giant lizard with saliva loaded with venom capable to kill a buffalo; a cruise on the biggest volcanic lake on earth, Lake Toba; checking out the natural beauty below and above the water of Bunaken in Sulawesi; the diverse cultures of tribe people that occupy the lush jungle and islands of Indonesian archipelago, and the list goes on. These can't be done in one month. Reconnecting with our roots take time, you can't rush it and I've to allocate enough time and do it in my own pace. I also be traveling to some new countries other than Indonesia, all in the course of twelve months.

One of many beautiful things of Africa

I've been putting something aside to sustain this lifestyle, although I feel the urge is always bigger than what I got so far. Since this is crucial moment of my life, there's no going back, there's no diversion. You see, I'm not actually a career oriented person. Yes we all need to work. But in my two cents I don't think that job should be a parameter of someone's success in general. I do care about my job and always give 100% towards it however it doesn't mean it should fully control the way we live. There are other things that I could connect in deeper level and therefore job for me has become a vessel to enable me to turn those other pursuits into reality. There's no right and wrong obviously. No guide book whatsoever. We all have different outlook how we would like to perceive our jobs and there's absolutely nothing wrong in voicing it out according to what we feel. By all means, if you're a person with ambition to climb the ladder and achieve  higher spot in the hierarchy of your organization chart and treat it as some kind of matrix of how you'd like to be perceived as the role model of success in the society, then go for it. The truth is, while career may sit on much higher ranking on some people, it sure doesn't in mine because I never let it sit on the driver seat in the first place. It doesn't mean I care less about all the jobs I ever had, that's beside the point. Do me a favour and don't mix the two wrong.

 

 

 

A year off will give me more time although I know it'll be a trade off with reality of not having income for a while. There's always sacrifice to make. The more we procrastinate, the further we push this idea away to the corner room until it gets dusty and eventually forgotten, while the point of living itself isn't it to squeeze the most juices out of life? No one ever said that the essence of our existence is spend your youth working your ass off until you reach retirement age then begin your everlasting holiday. Who can guarantee we even reach golden years? What about health that keeps on deteriorating as we gets older? Can you handle 20 hours bus ride in Asia when you're 70? 

I love this colour combination at Stonetown market, Zanzibar

There's a lot of benefits in taking mini retirement during the span of our lives, it creates more endorphins and contribute on having new perspective about our life, refresh our minds, reenergize our body, it's like we get rebooted all over again and reminded what is it like when we used to have more time to play as a child but doing it now from perspective of an adult.

Ultimately, time is what we all crave. For every bills we got,  stuff we accumulated over the years, we've been paying it with the time we spent working. In our death bed, we'd be wishing to live longer in order to do things we didn't get the chance to do, time is the most valuable commodity out there. And we keep losing every second of our life as the clock ticks over. So if I want to take a year off and go on adventures whether it'll be on my own or with people I deeply care and love, then I goddamn will. Don't ever compromise your life and gamble it away for something that's not equally worth it.


Until next time. Be free. Be wild. Be silly.

 

Hey good looking :p