Many times we make decisions in life that we later regret, even though we repeat to ourselves like a mantra that the only thing we have to regret is what is not done at the time we want to do it. … cap.
This could be, roughly speaking, the summary of the life of the American journalist Helen Zhao, who He worked for the prestigious CNBC network and one day he decided to quit his job to travel the world, he spent all his savings, and now he has explained in the first person why he considers it a bad decision.
In her text, the woman, now 35 years old, recounts how, at the age of 28, she joined the multimedia department of the aforementioned channel: “My dream job,” she says.
However, the demands of being part of such a company got the better of her and she describes how she would often wake up in the middle of the night wondering if one day, when she was 80, she wouldn’t make it. I would regret having lived to work and not do the opposite.
“I suffered from chronic anxiety and had lost my ability to live in the present,” he recalls. It was then that he made the big decision: to leave his job and go to Peru, where he undertook a 18 months between South America and Asia during which he spent $34,000around 31,600 euros at the current exchange rate.
“Every day was a sort of ‘choose your own adventure,’ involving good and bad choices. I learned the hard way lessons about balancing preparation, productivity, and leisure…and I reflected on all those regrets that ultimately They taught me when to prioritize happiness of the moment and when it is better to sacrifice yourself in exchange for a better future”, he reflects.
Obsessed with control
At first, he says, he began to become obsessed with keeping everything under control, so instead of enjoying the experience he had left his entire life behind for, he planned every trip to the countries he wanted to visit.
This led her to leave Argentina on the day they won the World Cup in Qatar in 2022 and miss the celebrations with the friends she had made, or find herself on a plane from Brazil to Bogotá on her birthday only to end up watching alone in an Airbnb through acquaintances’ Instagram stories how they were enjoying the Colombian Carbaval.
“I left high school knowing how to quote Shakespeare but I didn’t know how to pay the bills at the end of the month”
That is, instead of staying in each place as long as his body demanded to enjoy life there, he became obsessed with an itinerary he didn’t need, which taught him, he says, to leave the door open for projects without warning ever since.
Without money for a house and unable to have children
Another of his great regrets is economic and family. And that $34,000 spent in 18 months was practically all your savings.
What is happening now? That he can’t afford to buy a house – he doesn’t have enough down payment, especially in Los Angeles, where he lives – and She’s also not ready to have children. for the costs of starting a family.
She believes that this poor financial planning and overspending during her gap year was due in part to the fact that no one educated her on how to handle the financial side of adult life:
“I left high school knowing how to quote Shakespeare but I didn’t know how to pay the bills at the end of the month,” he says.
He thinks that if he had thought better, he could still have enjoyed his gap year, but without running out of moneywithout housing and without a short-term family plan at age 34.
Today, he tries to reorient his life after the lessons he says he learned from his journey and the mistakes he made, trying not to let regret be the center of his life. “second chance”which she now consults on a website where she details her experience as a journalist and traveler.
About The Author
