Quitting

23 March 2022 by cycling in a skirt 9 Comments

There’s nothing like a finely crafted resignation letter and, after nearly an hour of edits and re-writes, this is still nothing like finely crafted.

It does however, have all the essential wording in roughly the right order.

Most importantly, once delivered it’s a severing of one major guy-rope anchoring me to my current lifestyle. Admittedly a lifestyle that delivers a safe monthly income, pays the bills and feeds me, in a job that, whilst it doesn’t set my world alight, means that I get to work with a really good bunch of colleagues and occasionally do things that have a positive impact on others and of which I’m proud.

 

So, it’s with no small amount of fear that I sign my name to this electronic detonator of all things safe and secure, take a deep breath and press send.

Holy crap. What have I done?!

 

There is however, a good reason for making myself unemployed (hopefully). Pre-global pandemic I’d taken a long hard look at life and career and asked myself, ” Do I want to be doing the same things in 12 months time?”

The answer was a resounding “No”

Obviously the Covid world had other plans but we’ll come back to that.

 

After asking (and answering) the above question I began to hatch plans for a complete life overhaul, looking at re-modelling to include far more of the things that I love in a way that suited my skills and experience.

 

My Checklist for the things I want more of :

• Adventures
• Travel
• Cycling
• Being outdoors (ideally in sunshine)
• Meaningful deeds and encounters

The things I want less of:

• Screen time, and emails
• Needless corporate bull
• Routine
• Owning stuff (and having to fix it when it goes wrong)
• Adulting

With this wholly scientific process complete, I look back at what I’ve done previously when that ‘stuck’ feeling came upon me and I wanted a complete change. It was obvious really, just get on a bike and cycle.

 

One (fairly significant) difference from previous escapes is M, my long-suffering partner. Previously I’ve run off and travelled solo but what about this time?

Through a process of stealth and beer I’ve been gradually weaning M off the monotony of his pre-relationship luxury holidays and extolling the joys of cycle touring. Now, after several homegrown mountain bike tours and some adventures in Chile and Argentina I was finally winning him over so that, in a moment of weakness one tipsy night he agreed to chuck in his lot with me and pedal off around the world.

Decision made and plans starting to progress we earmarked autumn of 2020 for a start date. Then a little unknown virus, Covid-19, snuck into our lives and we, like the rest of the world worried, battened down the hatches and prepared to wait it out indefinitely.

You know what happened next, you were there living through it too. 

 

Now though, like spring after a long winter, the green shoots of a post covid-restricted world are starting to emerge, it’s tenuous, the situation is not over yet but neither is it as fearful and restricted as even 6 months ago. And, if the previous 24 months have shown us anything, it is that anything can happen, both bad and good. Things, plans, can change in a heartbeat but, if you’ve been fortunate enough for that heartbeat to remain strong are you going to waste any more of that precious time in front of a computer screen, are you going to sit in that endless traffic jam every morning, or continue flicking mindlessly through costly subscription tv channels full of stuff you never want to watch.

Looking at it like that it’s a no-brainer really.

Which is why I’m quitting my job and, in a few months, will be loading up the bike, closing my front door and riding away for the next year, maybe more.

There are plans, tenuous but considered, with many options, caveats and flexes built in to accommodate changing restrictions, health and the possibility that 12 months in a tent with one’s partner may not be conducive to harmonious living.

 

But that’s also part of the fun. So, bring on the unknown, bring on the adventure, bring on life.

 

 

“We have nothing to lose” quote by Rainie Rainie Navarro.

 

*******************************************************************************************************

If you enjoy reading about adventure, travel, cycling or all 3 why not check out my book: How To Cycle Canada the Wrong Way.

It’s the story of a forty-something woman with no clue in life and no cycle touring experience. What she does have is a sense of adventure, a second hand bicycle and a skirt and the idea of riding across Canada….the wrong way.

Available on Amazon in e-reader and paperback formats.