Here’s why I took a sabbatical and lived my dream life for 3 months Last Updated: December 19, 2021

I MAY have taken ‘When life gets boring, travel.’ a little too seriously.

In September 2021, I flew to Europe with a one-way ticket and a 3-month multi-entry Schengen visa. My deadline to come back was three months.

But why did I decide to travel for so long and go on a solo trip?

Well, the main reason is that I was burnt out. This is something I had realized a couple of months before my trip.

I had taken on a lot of work including a full-time job and quite a few side hustles. Due to this, I ended up working from Monday to Sunday with very limited time for myself. And I was desperate for a break. Not a short one but something that could completely rejuvenate me so I can bring my focus back to work.

The Covid-19 situation started to get better and a few European countries started opening their borders. This made me seriously think about taking a trip.

I had reached a point where I decided to pause everything that I was working on, and just chase my dream for as long as I could. And, that’s exactly what I did.

So, I decided to use my savings and load a certain amount of money on my FOREX card and come back to India when I run out of it.

I didn’t want to wait too long to take this trip because I was intuitive about the pandemic situation getting worse in the later months.

My second dose of vaccination was pending so I couldn’t leave for Europe before that. I was fully vaccinated by the third week of August and I left for Europe in the second week of September since at least 14 days should have passed after taking the second dose.

It took me a little over a month to convince my parents. (You know how Indian parents are!) but I made it happen.

Although the goal was to stick around in Europe for as long as I can, I was prepared to come back sooner for whatever reasons, the main one being the pandemic.

Another reason was to experience traveling solo on a budget for a longer period of time.

I have done a few solo trips in the past but they have been for ten days at the most. I wanted to challenge myself and see if I can survive three months of traveling alone.

And to be honest, the pandemic hadn’t made things easy. After having a rough time in 2020 due to the pandemic majorly, I feel I deserved this!

Lastly, I had been manifesting celebrating my birthday in my favorite city, Madrid.

My birthday falls in September and Madrid is a city very close to my heart since I have spent my amazing one and a half years there from 2019 to early 2020. Ever since I left the city, there hadn’t been a single day I didn’t think about going back. So, after months of manifesting being in the city especially on my birthday in 2021, I made it!

I flew into Paris, spent 2 days there and then made my way to Madrid just in time for my birthday. It’s such a grateful feeling to see your manifestations come to life!

Everything fell in place for this trip and I knew I wanted to grab this opportunity right away before things get locked down again.

BUT, two days before my flight from Mumbai to Paris, it was canceled. This has never happened to me before so I was really freaked out and also sad because I had got a steal deal on the flight costs. Considering I was on a tight budget, it was hard to rebook my flight at almost double the cost. I did it anyway and made it to Paris!

Three months on, all I can say is the risk of taking this sabbatical was well worth it!

I met the most amazing people on my journey, had some really crazy experiences (more on that in another article), and came back home stronger, happier, and more than ready to get back to the grind.

I can’t wait to share all the solo trip details with you!

Have you done something similar before? Do you think I made the right choice going on a sabbatical and taking a solo trip that I thought was much needed? Tell me in the comments below.