What is your greatest personal fear? I am not talking about spiders, heights, or drowning. I am talking about the big… huge picture kinds of things. My biggest fear in life is not doing the things I could have done when I was physically and mentally capable of doing them. While, of course, you can accomplish great things even at an advanced age, it is not a risk I want to take. I already feel sleepy when I am out too late, get winded in hikes that have steep slopes, and find that I no longer had the photographic memory I used to possess in my high school and college years. The clock is ticking and the time is now.

Upon paying off my debt of 42K in under three years, and surprisingly still having a big surplus, I had a difficult decision to make. There were huge job opportunities in both America and Korea. I could have also gone back to school to do a masters, or taken that money and invested it. There is one thing that none of those options would have given me though. The biggest perk, which is also probably the most expensive one to afford, is time.

For these reasons, I am taking 6 months off from working. While some people have called it excessive, unnecessary, and flat out lazy, I feel that personal growth is not something you should ignore. Working on yourself is what makes a person tick, what makes a life worth living. While in the past, I’ve definitely had vacation time, I always felt like I should use it to travel, since time was so limited. I never stopped to explore some of the other stuff that makes me happy.

What To Do With All of This ‘Time?’

While I definitely have used my free time effectively over the years (more on this later), there are a few things I want to accomplish:

1) Learn to Swim… Well

About two years ago, I was certified as Read more →