Read This If You Are on a Sabbatical or Unemployed

Let's not pretend we are having hunky-dory work lives in the current economy.

My now-deceased elder brother would often tell me to go beyond jobs. He said that to his other cousins too.

I longed to. For the longest time.

But then, I’d remember that he was more financially well-off than I was. Much more well-off.

And I’d say to myself — It’s not for folks like me who live from paycheck to paycheck, save some money in Recurring Deposits or Mutual Funds and send a few to our mothers back home.

Well, that’s not true.

Not really, no.

Life and health does not discriminate between the rich and the not-so-rich.

You hustle too much and you burn out in your 30s.

You are almost forced to take another path. Rewire your brain to move in another direction and maybe, abandon the career plans you made as a 20-year-old.

Life goes by pretty fast. If you don’t look up once in a while, you’ll miss it.

The above is a very well-known quote. I first heard it on the show New Girl.

So, now that I am on a break/sabbatical/looking for a new job, I am floundering for work that pays me what I’m worth.

It’s draining, but here’s the catch.

Aside from money, I don’t dislike anything else about my days these days.

Nothing. I love the freedom.

I wake up excited about how the day is going to unravel.

No, there’s nothing very exciting. But that’s the thing. It’s the mundane that I’m loving.

I have cultivated new relationships. I have the time to spend time with loved ones. Of course, I avoid looking at my bank statements. I pretend I’m already down to a penny.

But, surprisingly, I am surviving.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not romanticizing my unemployment. Because this ‘break’ has come to me after a lot of difficulty and pain and embarrassment.

I wanted to take a break for the longest time. I think it was in late 2022 that I felt I need to reprioritize some things. I was working so hard but I was still not happy.

Moving to a big city was a good experience. But it still did not make me happy. Also, big cities are, by default, extremely lonely.

My mother and sister told me taking a break would not be a wise financial decision. How long could it last? Three months? Six months? How far could I exhaust my savings? And, no income can lead to a lot of mental anguish. A lot.

Trust me, every other day those feelings of helplessness get to me.

However, despite that, I managed to finish four books.

Four.

Of different genres.

I don’t remember when was the last time I did that.

Against all doubts, I started another Instagram account on Classic Literature. Two of my reels did very well in just a month. I’m no wannabe influencer. It’s a dangerous terrain. I like the anonymity. But I also like to make use of my voiceover-perfect voice and love for the camera.

I write for The Rolling Tape. And I’m back on Medium.

I am planning on moving to the Academia. I have no doubt it’ll be harder than the corporate world I’ve become so used to.

But I do not like where we are letting AI take us. And, thanks to the journals on dystopian literature my fiancé shared, I got to know about Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., a dystopian literature which is absolutely the reality now.

I am already getting research paper ideas. Maybe my professors were right.

Again, don’t get me wrong. This sabbatical and unemployment is hard. Particularly because we feel worthless with the advent of AI and Machine Learning. No one knows what’s in store. Companies are misusing AI to fire people and render thousands jobless in a terrible economy. All the dystopian books are becoming real. As predicted, we humans are increasingly turning desolate because that’s what happens when we measure our worth through our possessions and material wealth.

We depend on the economy for our self worth. Who we are becomes inextricably linked with our paychecks and designations.

What we do is who we are.

And that’s not nice in case of jobs.

If you are someone planning a sabbatical, know that it’s really hard to be at leisure for people in our times. To do nothing requires every ounce of effort. But, stillness is where we get the answers.

Also know that it’s perfectly fine to take your own damn time to actually take a sabbatical. If you don’t want to let go of the financial security of a paycheck yet, don’t go ahead with it just yet. The time will come and you will know it.

This whole thing needs a lot of patience which our generation lacks. And hence, we are the loneliest of all.

Choosing to slow down is an act of rebellion in the current times. It does take every ounce of energy to not let the ‘unemployed’ tag affect you or your bank balance rob you of your sleep. That’s why I have books next to my bed. That’s why I am writing on movies and learning tit-bits of video editing via Instagram.

If you are on the same boat as me, know that we are on the Titanic.

We really can’t help if the ship sinks because political powers are at their worst. Our skills are our lifeboats and we polish it as much as we can. Or we try to survive as much as we can in icy waters till some Carpathia comes to rescue us.