Welcome to Memories Not Material Things!
Within these pages, you will find a collection of articles and stories that I hope will inspire you to give up the 9 to 5 office grind for work you can do from anywhere. My goal is to enable more individuals to led the adventure-filled lifestyle they deserve. Whether you want to travel the world – like me – or just have more time for your passions in life, I hope somewhere within these pages you’ll find hope that there is more to life than work.
My Story
I am a Generation X girl. I was born in 1976 and brought up to believe that to be a success in life you had to graduate from college, get a corporate job, get married, buy a 2,500sq foot home, have 2.5 kids and a dog, and work your way up the career ladder.
I started down that route but stumbled at the 2.5 kids and a dog marker.
In January 2014, I found myself a miserable singleton living in London. My marriage of 10 years had been dissolved a few years earlier, and there were no new prospects on the horizon. I was successfully employed as a vice-president level marketing manager in one of the world’s top three investment banks. I had 15 years of corporate life under my built. I was earning a six-figure salary. I was nearly the definition of what my generation would call a success. But I hated my life.
After several months of waking up thinking, ‘There is got to be more to life than this?!’, I decided to quit the rat race. Some people have told me it was a brave decision. It wasn’t. It was a matter of life or death for me. For, at that point in my life my daily thoughts had become ‘If this is the way my life is going to look for the rest of this year, and for the foreseeable future, then I don’t want to live.’
So I quit. Without a plan. Maybe that was the brave part. Well, I did have a short term plan. I decided to full-fill a childhood dream the seven-year old girl in me had always wanted to do. Travel the world. For a year, I lugged a backpack across 6 continents and 26 countries. Not something most 39 year-olds do. I didn’t know what I would do when I returned. I just hoped some inspiration or opportunity would open itself up along the road.
And it did! Upon returning, I retrained to teach English as a foreign language and then moved to Korea for a year to try out my new profession. That experience led to me getting a job teaching English online, which gives me the flexibility to work from anywhere in the world and the time to spend my day doing more of what I love.
I no longer earn anything like what I did working in my corporate life, but I buy less now. Choosing to collect more memories in my life and fewer things, has led me to having a much more fulfilling life.
Within these pages are my stories and my tips for how you can do the same. Enjoy!
