Not getting a job

Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Over the last few months I have been thinking on what I want to do with my life. Or more specifically, how am I going to support myself?

A lot of possibilities have passed by.

• Get back to the Netherlands and get a job. Like the one I had before, but different enough not to be boring immediately.
• Start up my own company in the Netherlands.
• Stay somewhere in South America and get a job there.

And after quite some time of thinking I thought I had it figured out. Go to Peru, find a job somewhat similar to what I did before and live there a happy life for 2 to 5 years.

But something has been nagging in the back of my head.

Some time in the beginning of my trip I stumbled over a very interesting blog post, about why you shouldn’t get a job.

It was part of my thinking about what I wanted. Starting up something for myself was partially inspired by it. And that has been a very serious option for a long time.

But my thoughts were drifting more and more towards staying in South America (Peru, to be exact). And living in a completely different continent and embarking on a completely different way of working were too much at the same time.

I thought.

But something’s nagging.

Or perhaps a lot of things are.

Doing the things I love. Trying things I never dared before. Developing new skills. Courage. Inspiring. Helping others.

Next to that, Peru is quite cheap (compared to the Netherlands that is). And I will still have a decent amount of savings when I get there. So I can last for a while without earning anything.

So why not do a bunch of other things to see how they work out. Maybe I’ll find something really cool. Maybe it’ll tank. Who knows? Who cares?

I always love to see people performing in the street; I could do street theater. I want to continue with my book. And perhaps there are other “writing” jobs out there? I would enjoy to teach some more Capoeira. Perhaps I could hire myself out as a quantitative consultant (6 years of studying and 6 years of work experience has to be worth something right?). And I’m sure I’ll dream up a number of other crazy ideas when I really get to it.

Not getting a job and just “fiddling around” is scary though! A job is what you should do. It’s what society expects. People without jobs are losers. And more useless thoughts like that…

But, what have I got to loose? Some money (which is not that important). Some time (though I’m sure that trying things out in a strange country will rank high on my list of “things I’m glad I did”).

So, nothing important really.

I’m curious what I will end up doing. But perhaps that’s the most interesting life to live, not knowing what tomorrow will bring?