Why I quit my 9-5 job and decide to travel the world

Being a digital nomad is something that everybody should try. I mean, I know is not for everybody, but if you want to do it, you should do it before you regret it.

Last time I wrote something here I was in a phase of my career and my life where I felt like I didn’t know what’s next step to take.

Maybe that’s the main reason I started learning Machine Learning, but I lost interest because, I realized that I didn’t want to be chasing all the new trends, every time that a new technology or a new framework comes out.

I’m very satisfied with my abilities and knowledge about javascript, node.js, and development in general, I didn’t need to invest more time on that, I needed a change in my life.

I was in love with my job, working on a successful startup where I wrote the first line of code, where I was the first employee and I saw how it grow from 3 people on a cozy 15 m2 (161 ft2) office to 30 people, 3 countries, and multiple floor offices.

Being part of that was amazing. But of course everything in life has a tradeoff, and I was obsessed with being productive and serving well to the company, but when I felt they didn’t recognize my efforts, in an economic perspective. When the Argentinean currency crash, my bosses didn’t raise my salary nor wanted to at least pay me in US dollars, though I put two years and a half of my life on to this company and a lot of effort, often working late, and taking no vacations the first two years, and working on holidays and weekends, I felt betrayed.

I felt like shit for 4-5 months, I was angry all the time, didn’t have the motivation to work on any development related projects, even my for my own. I didn’t want to continue learning new things and I didn’t want to contribute to the growing of the company.

What’s the purpose of my life?

I was gifted with time, with freedom of choice, I learned about the hot stuff that everybody in the world is using, and yet I was decided to give it to people that are careless about what I want.

I started to watch videos about people walking the world, reading blogs about the subject, and following Instagram accounts with gorgeous photos and videos about the adventure that life is.

I don’t want to give the best years of my life to a company, and to make other people rich. I’m gonna take control of my life, I’m gonna do whatever I wanted to do, and chase my dreams.

Here I’m, 4 months after quitting Whyline in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, 10000km away from home, working at my own time, away from 9-5 office fixed schedule And I’m moving to Playa del Carmen, Mexico next week, and I never feel so alive.

Maybe I don’t have the time to continue studying Machine Learning, nor studying to apply for a job as a software engineer at Google, because now I spend my free time doing surf or scuba diving or just chilling with my wife and watching Netflix, and you know what? Maybe I’m learning about what is to be alive.