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Quitting Your Job Is Less Risky Than You Think

A lesson learned from traveling the world

David B. Clear
4 min readFeb 5, 2022
All images by the author.

I grabbed my wife Fabi, strapped a backpack on her, put a backpack on myself, and then dragged her onto a plane that took us all the way to Bangkok, Thailand. My idea was to travel around Southeast Asia until we got tired of it — or until our savings ran out.

Fabi’s idea, meanwhile, was… Well, she didn’t have any idea. She hadn’t the faintest notion of what to expect. She had never backpacked or traveled long-term. She had never been to Asia, never slept in a hostel, never used a squat toilet. What’s more, she had never been away from her family for more than two weeks. So, naturally, she had some fears:

  • Where are we going to sleep?
  • How are we going to get around?
  • What will we eat?
  • What about the language barrier?
  • What if we get sick?
  • How much is it going to cost?
  • ISN’T THIS CRAZY?!

My answer? We’ll figure it out.

And that’s what we did.

We hopped on trains, buses, and boats, not always being sure where they’d take us. We haggled for papayas, mangoes, and bananas. We roamed the streets of unknown towns and cities…

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David B. Clear
David B. Clear

Written by David B. Clear

Cartoonist, science fan, PhD, eukaryote. Doesn't eat cats, dogs, nor other animals. 1,000x Bottom Writer. davidbclear.com

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