INTERVIEW Traveler's advice: Think twice about quitting your job to see the world
Chang Chan-young visits Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia on Dec. 23, 2010. Courtesy of Chang Chan-young
By Jung Min-ho
We are all too familiar with the message: “I quit my job to travel the world and find my new dream ― and you should too!”
While this mindset and lifestyle are becoming increasingly popular in the era of social media and digital nomads, one man who has tried it says the message should be taken with a pinch of salt.
“While traveling around the world for 529 days, I visited every place I wanted to see and did everything I had dreamed of,” Chang Chan-young, 34, said in a recent interview. “After the adventure, I returned home. It was a perfect ending. But then I realized that it wasn't a movie and asked myself, 'What should I do now?'”
Before and during his journey, Chang thought, at the end of it, he would discover something special ― something that would somehow open the next chapter of his life. But there was no such eureka moment, he said.
“Traveling around the world was the goal of my life and I accomplished it when I was still in my 20s,” he said. “For a while, I was confused and felt so empty inside. But at the same time, I was conceited. People treated me differently and I also considered myself someone special. I told myself I would never live the same, boring life that everyone else lives … I was deluded and trapped in that arrogant thought.”
After struggling to find a new purpose in life for about a year, Chang got a job at a logistics company and worked there for seven years. Surprisingly, he discovered great satisfaction in a “normal life” that he once looked down on. All this experience led him to publish the book, “So What Should I Do Now?”
“It turned out that I'm a type of person who also enjoys a stable lifestyle,” he said. “I thought it would be interesting to share my thoughts on the illusions I used to have about traveling and living a normal life.”
It all began with a pen pal website, where he got to know people living across the world, and his first overseas travel in 2008 was 40 days in India with his friend.
“The India trip changed me profoundly,” Chang said. “For the first time in life, I had a clear dream. I wanted to see a bigger world and, from then, I knew I would be able to do that.”
For the next 529 days, Chang traveled to 23 countries on five continents. Some days amazed him; Uluru, a massive natural sandstone rock formation in Australia, and Salar de Uyuni, the world's largest salt flat in Bolivia, were among the most breathtaking places he had seen. But other days exhausted him with challenges, such as a terrible cold he suffered in Beijing. But, all in all, it was “like a dream come true,” he said.
Chang said people often ask him whether it would be a good idea to quit their jobs to travel the world after they were inspired by travel stories like his.
“Interestingly enough, I haven't met anyone who regrets quitting his or her job to travel,” he said. “So I wouldn't say they should or shouldn't. I would rather advise them to think deeply before making a decision. My choice was easier. I was in college and did not have a stable job back then.”
Chang said he has no plans for long-term travel. He is now writing a romance novel based on his experiences.
“The story is about a traveler who falls in love with a woman,” he said. “Finishing that work is my new dream.”