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Did you ever find yourself looking around, wondering what you were doing and how you got here? Did you then go on to wonder if "here" was where you really wanted to be? That's what happened to Jennifer Baggett, Holly Corbett and Amanda Pressner, aka the Lost Girls. When they didn't know the answers to those questions, they decided to find out by taking a year to travel around the world. I spent my recent vacation reading about their trip in their book The Lost Girls: Three friends, four continents, one unconventional detour around the world.
I spend my twenties being a lost girl. I didn't know if I was in the right place, which resulted in a few long distance moves with mixed success. I grappled around trying to find a career. I knew I was good at various things, but how to string those into a career was something college didn't teach me. When I did find a career, it morphed in work hours that were the my personal definition of insane. It got to the point where I'd find myself sitting in my bathtub, letting the shower rain down on me while I wondered how I had gotten here and how the heck I was supposed to get out. I wanted to run away.
I found my way out --I simply quit -- but I'd be lying if I didn't say that I envied the route that Jen, Holly and Amanda took. After taking stock and realizing they weren't sure that they were really doing the right thing or were in the right place, with the pressures of creating successful careers breathing down their necks, they went on an a year long around the world adventure. Don't bother telling me that you never, ever dreamed of just hitting the road, because I won't believe you. Their trip is pretty much the kind of trip that I would have wanted to take -- minus the cockroaches and a few scary cab rides.
I was thrilled to be able to ask the Lost Girls some questions about careers, travel and life.
The Interview with The Lost Girls
BlogHer: I think that in our society, we're pushed toward the career ladder as soon as we are out of college (if not before) and are told to climb, climb, climb. When you planned you trip you brushed that ladder aside for awhile, did your friends and former colleagues think that you were nuts?
Amanda: Actually, relatively free friends and co-workers thought we were crazy for wanting to take off. In fact, many joked around about wanting to come with us! People were definitely curious about the logistics of planning a trip like ours. How were we paying for it? Where were we keeping our stuff? Did we worry about not finding work again after returning home? But no one questioned the underlying desire to want to see the world with two closer friends. In fact, it was the final piece of it, that we had two close girlfriends willing to be traveling companions, that seemed to make this a “no brainer” of sorts -- both for us, and for the people who heard that we were taking off. Many agreed that if they had companions willing to make such a journey, they’d give their notice that day!
BlogHer: Work/life balance is a mystery for many of us, whether we're in our twenties or our forties, whether we're moms or not, whether we work inside the home or out. After several years of the scale being tipped toward work, the three of you tipped it in the direction of life for a full year (your various writing assignments aside). Since returning back from your trip, have you been able to find balance between work and life? Do you think it's possible or is it a myth?
Amanda: While our priorities certainly shifted in the wake of our round-the-world adventure (all three of us craved more time with the people that we loved, and the opportunity for self-reflection) the reality is this: It’s a constant battle to try to keep work and professional commitments from commanding a larger place in our lives than we’d like them to. Our society places a tremendous emphasis on professional achievement and often values how someone performs on their job over how they interact with friends, family and the community. We have to remind ourselves, and each other, that it’s not only acceptable to set boundaries so that
