How I Quit My Job To Travel The World At 20 Years Old

Last Updated on 29th February 2024

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This is a post that I’ve been wanting to write for quite some time now, but I’ve never really quite known how to structure it, without it coming across as “boasting” or “braggy”.

However, in the last couple of months, I’ve received so many messages from people all over the world asking exactly how I quit my “traditional” job in order to pursue a ~career~ online in order to travel the world full time.

I’ve already written quite extensively about my career journey so far and the number of different jobs I’ve had over the years, but this post is going to focus primarily on how I quit my most recent 9-5 job in order to work for myself and travel the world.

Let me know in the comments if there’s anything I haven’t quite covered, or feel free to email me with anymore questions you might have!

My “normal” job before freelancing

If you read my post about my career journey so far, you’ll know that I’ve had a fair few jobs over the years, including being a pot wash in a kitchen in New Zealand, a secretary in a lawyer’s office, as well as an apprentice and then a digital marketing assistant for two different companies in York.

Before I quit my job in December 2018, I was working for a York company who specialise in digital marketing. While it was a step up from my previous role, it was still quite a basic and entry-level job (which is more than fair enough; I was only 20 years old and my only qualification in the industry was an apprenticeship).

I worked there for eight months between April 2018 and December 2018, undertaking digital marketing assistant tasks. This included writing Google Ads for various clients, taking notes in meetings, and formulating spreadsheets, amongst numerous other things.

The start of I’m Just A Girl

Since I was around 14 years old, I’ve always had some kind of on-and-off online platform where I shared diary-style posts, beauty finds and snippets of any trips and travels I’d been on.

However, in October 2016, while working at Starbucks and ~figuring out~ my next move when I decided that I didn’t want to go to university, I officially started the I’m Just A Girl blog that you know (and hopefully love!) today. During its early days, my blog was just a space for me to write about my apprenticeship, take on different blogging challenges and basically acted as a portfolio of my writing in case I ever decided to actually pursue my lifelong dream of being a writer.

The following year, once I’d built up a fair bit of experience in writing online and working on numerous sponsored posts for various brands on my blog, I decided that I wanted to branch out even further and make a start as a freelance writer for other people.

There are many things that I can attribute to my success of becoming a full-time blogger and freelancer, including plenty of courses, ebooks and tonnes of free information online.

One of the biggest things I tell people that they need to succeed in anything they set their mind to is passion; if you’re not passionate about the thing you’re going after, then chances are it’s not likely to succeed.

How I quit my job to travel – becoming a freelancer

I began my venture into freelancing alongside working at my day job in digital marketing in 2017. I’d work 9-5 at the office and then come home and work on my blog, or on content for my freelance clients. I also worked on my own projects over the weekend if I didn’t have any plans and would even try and sometimes squeeze out content before I started work or during my lunch break during the week.

I enjoyed my job in digital marketing, don’t get me wrong, but it didn’t quite set my heart on fire like writing for myself or working on various forms of content for clients did.

I soon found that I was taking on an awful lot of freelance and blog work, which was incredible, but it meant that I couldn’t always give it my all due to my day job. I also got to the point where I found myself making more money through my freelance writing and through my blog each month than I did working for the digital marketing company, so I had a few things to think about.

This started happening just before my one-year anniversary of setting up my freelancing company and just 6 or 7 months before we were due to set off on our indefinite trip around the world. I knew that when we started travelling, I wanted to be able to make money online as we went so that I could fund my trip and continue to travel for as long as possible.

It was then that I decided to pursue working for myself as a full-time freelancer and quit my job in order to write and travel.

I made this decision probably around November time in 2018, but it wasn’t until the beginning of December that I actually plucked up the courage to hand my notice in at my day job and finally make the leap.

I left “the office” in December 2018, just before Christmas and I’ve honestly never looked back. The roles that I had in digital marketing taught me invaluable skills that 100% aided me in my success of freelancing and blogging and helped me to make the change from “traditional” employment to self-employment and I’m so grateful for those experiences.

Blogging, freelancing and travelling

The beginning of January 2019 marked my early days of self-employment as a freelance writer and full-time blogger; I was finally doing something that filled me with immense passion and that finally felt like ‘me’.

Working from home was actually much easier than I thought it would be; I’ve always been someone who works well on their own and as I was so determined to make it a success in order to travel full time, I worked incredibly hard and made sure I was always motivated.

Of course, there were days when I just wanted to watch Netflix all day long and there were days when I actually allowed myself to do that; the great thing about working for myself was that I was able to set my own schedule and working hours and only I was liable for it.

The success of my business relies solely on the hard work and graft that I put into each and every project; there’s no one else on my team to motivate me and hold me accountable to work, I’ve got to do it all myself.

When April 2019 rolled around, I’d been working full time for myself for just over three months and I felt equipped with the necessary skills to be able to work on the road while travelling. Those first three months of having somewhat of a structured routine while working from home enabled me to develop good working habits so that by the time we started travelling, I was able to work pretty well from anywhere in the world.

What I’m up to now – August 2020

At the time of writing this post, I’ve been back in the UK for almost five months after spending 11 months backpacking around New Zealand, Australia and Southeast Asia. We only returned home due to the dreaded Coronavirus and full-time travel is very much something we want to pursue again once it’s safe to do so.

For now, we’re concentrating on our businesses and I’m planning to make this blog bigger and better than ever. We’re also embarking on lots of UK travel at the moment so you can expect to see lots of content on our trips on my blog. In terms of my freelance writing, I’m still very much offering those services and will continue to do so until it no longer brings me joy. The ability to work from anywhere in the world and to be able to work with some truly incredible brands, clients and businesses fills me with so much joy every single day and I’m so grateful to be able to do what I do.

Thank you to each and every one of you who reads my blog, likes, shares and comments on my social media posts and to all my incredible clients, both past and present, who allow me to fulfil one of my greatest passions of writing every single day.

Related posts:

• My Career Journey So Far: From Barista To Blogger & Businesswoman
• How I Manage A Business And Blog While Travelling Full Time
• The Pros And Cons Of Being A Digital Nomad
• How To Make Money While Travelling
• 9 Lessons I’ve Learned In My First Year Of Self Employment

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Would you ever quit your job to travel the world? Let me know in the comments or on Instagram @imjustagirl_16.