How to quit your job and teach abroad without the regrets

Teaching abroad is a great opportunity in many ways. If you’re an aspiring teacher it is invaluable experience that will shine brightly on your resume for future job prospects. It’s also a great way to travel while working. A win-win situation. You’re getting paid to work in a country that you’ve always wanted to visit. Teaching contracts are generally one to two years and that allows you plenty of time to see all that you want to see where you otherwise wouldn’t be able to if you were just going on vacation.

I think my student captured my eyelashes perfectly, don't you?

“Do you have a design in mind for your blog? Whether you prefer a trendy postcard look or you’re going for a more editorial style blog - there’s a stunning layout for everyone.”

For those who are coming out of college to embark on a journey of this kind – it’s a nice transition from college and there isn’t a whole lot you have to lose. You’re still free of stresses that will hunt you down later in life. Carefree enough where jumping on a plane headed for another country is not all that scary. At least not as scary as it would be for someone with a mortgage, car payment, and who knows what other debts to pay.

However, if you’re reading this and you’ve been out of college for a while (long enough to pile on gobs of bills and debt) then leaving for a year to live in another country is more foreign of an idea than the country itself. You have a career whether it’s enjoyable or not, and leaving it is huge decision. I know. I was there.

And theirin lies the rub...

A few years after I began teaching I often found myself disenchanted with the career I was in. I woke up many mornings not wanting to go to work. I found no gratification in the work itself. It was just a good career. So I started networking and someone suggested international teaching to me. Actually they suggested teaching English abroad, it was actually a hidden blessing for me. It helped to shake my focus away from thinking that teaching at home in my "secure job" was the only path. It made me start reflecting on the hundreds, if not thousands of times before I had fantasied about how great it would be to live and travel abroad. Something that would bring fulfillment and would deliver daily change and countless activities that would keep me from a life of monotony. Well, I’m there now. I took that leap with my family, I made that change, and now it’s all so clear to me.

Would I have thought just a few years ago that I would be sitting in Albania writing a blog about travelling and working internationally and teaching? Not a chance. Well, maybe I thought about it, but to actually take my life out of comfort and plop down in a foreign country like where we currently are here in Albania is a whole other story. Yet here I am…

But that’s me. Enough about me – let’s talk about you!

Have you been in my shoes with your career? Are you there now? Have you ever considered taking a year off to explore the world? Do life in another country. Just to get away for a while even. Maybe you really enjoy your career but still would like to go somewhere. You may have commitments that you can’t just drop, but maybe they can be managed for a year or two while you’re away.

So how do you quit your job to do something like teaching abroad…without regrets?

I think it all starts with asking yourself real questions. Like, what is life about? Why am I so intent on keeping on this path? Does this job bring me down more than I can bring myself back up? There are many questions, but you have to ask them to yourself whatever they are. Those you wrestle with from time to time.

Traveling abroad and teaching English for a year or so is a very short term endeavor if you look at it in the broad scheme of things. *Disclaimer *I am not an English teacher I am a qualified Early Years specialist teacher and have been teaching in that field and to that effect in International schools. It can only help you grow as a person and open your mind to new ideas. I can’t tell you what those ideas will be for YOU, and you won’t know what they are either until you’re there.

You have to decide. Beware of “analysis paralysis” as I was once told. If it’s itching, maybe it’s time to scratch it. Just go for it. Unloading a bunch of unnecessary stuff and throwing the rest in storage only seems daunting when you haven’t committed in your mind.

Then you have to DO. Can you quit your job and teach abroad? I don’t think it’s a question of “if” you can do it as much as it is a question of “when” you will. Regrets will likely be the last thing on your mind.

Ponder, decide, take massive action!

A job, a career…they are temporary like our lives. It’s entirely possible to reinvent yourself and see life in a completely different way. If you get there, you won’t know regrets. Even if it’s short term, you’ll be glad you did it.

Switching gears and venturing down a new path isn’t something that everyone has the ability to do and that’s reason enough to consider it. I’ve been teaching internationally in various countries for fourteen years come August and at the moment it’s an impossibility to return to the teaching profession in my home country as that's not the plan I have for my life right now.

I’ve learnt a lot, gained new strength and have embraced this expat life. I’m doing what is within my power to continue down this path (e.g. teaching certifications) and networking with the international teaching community. It makes sense to me now and the frustrations I once had are now gone. I am that thing now. The fantasy I would ponder over while sipping my morning tea before heading off to “line manage” something. There are so many countries to see and so many more blogs to write about my times in those places. It would be foolish to go back now.

I’ll let you in on my newly adopted mantra in life and it goes something like this:

Things are always working out for me because I'm tuned in, tapped on to who I am and what I want.