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I think that, regardless of where you go, going somewhere new or somewhere where you don't know many people for a semi-long/long amount of time is extremely helpful. You learn a lot about yourself, your motivations, your priorities. Some of your worries I wouldn't worry about so much -- if you want to keep some of your things, you can put them in storage or give them to a friend you trust, if you know someone with some spare room. Ditto for the place, if you want to keep it you could most likely sublease it to a friend or someone else for the amount of time you'll be gone and get it back when you return. I wouldn't worry about future career prospects; when you're interviewed, of course you'll be asked about it, but you can spin it in many positive ways. One year of salary loss is probably the only important issue in your third paragraph, so I would be careful and conservative with your calculations. And the feeling that you're doing it because you can rather than being truly excited about it is a real one, and is maybe partly due to the length of time you're considering, but it is something you really should consider if you are planning to have a family (especially with kids) in the future. If you're worried about the length of time (although you didn't mention this directly in your post, it was one of the reservations I had and a feeling that crept into me as I started a 6 month journey traveling to a few different countries) you could most likely feasibly travel for 2-3 months to somewhere new, while keeping your apartment. Then if you want to travel for longer, you can figure out what to do from there. On a more philosophical note: don't live to work, work to live. Your career is not in jeopardy for traveling for a period of time, the only thing that you're going to be missing out on is an income during that time. Your career will be there when you get back, and so will your friends, family -- plus you'll have a lot of interesting stories to tell. |