Have you ever taken an impromptu leave from work for an adventure or some other activities?

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About five years ago I used to do construction work on and off for my father. I never really saw myself as an electrician so it was always something I just did for the cash. Of course my father was all ‘you should learn a trade because it’s a good thing to fall back on in lean times’. This was, of course, before the housing crisis.

Anyway, I was working at a low voltage electrical job that my father had helped me find and the work was real slow. My father had gotten in with a company that did hotel renovations and they’d gotten a contract for a renovation very close to where we lived. Usually they were out in the middle of nowhere and I just had no interest in going all the way out to the boonies just to make cash.

So I start working this gig, and the money, compared to the slow trickle I’d gotten from the low-voltage work, was really good. So good I decided to knock something off my bucket list, traveling outside the country. Out of the blue, I booked a round-trip ticket to Cartagena, Colombia, leaving in a week, going for two months.

My father was furious. But I wouldn’t back down, and ended up having the trip of my life. Of course he was all like, “you’ll never make anything of yourself with that attitude.”

I took around $3k with me to Colombia. I stayed in hostels and lived cheap. I came home with like $600 left.

As for my father’s opinions? I now take home more in two weeks than I spent in the two months I was there. I’ve been to Colombia three times now. And I don’t let anyone tell me how to live my life.