Sabbatical

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Traveling to København

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Photo Credit: Ping Yi Wang

Photo Credit: Ping Yi Wang

I thought it was important to go somewhere I didn't know too well during a sabbatical but to also stay away from over extending myself during this important time I have. Traveling can be exhausting so I committed to stay put even though it was very tempting to plan trips to Paris, Berlin, Prague, and the list goes on. 

For me, I planned to go to Copenhagen, Denmark. I chose Copenhagen because I had been there with a friend of mine for a few days before a graduate school trip and I absolutely fell in love with it. Besides being a design Mecca, there was something about that city that initially attracted me. The vibe, bikes, design, fashion, and so much more. 

So I flew. And landed safely. (I've recently acquired a fear of flights so I was happy the flight was successful.) 

My friend Ping from New York came with me and she planned to adventure around with me for the first week. Here is an accidental photo while we were trying to take a selfie.

My immediate experience after landing:

Being in the User Experience + Service Design industry, I want to share my first experience I had when landing in Denmark. 

A Simple Feedback Kiosk

I had to purchase a train ticket to get into the city and after doing so, I was met with a feedback engine. Very simple and direct but it enticed me to give my opinion which is very good in the UX world.

The person who helped me purchase my train ticket was kind enough to tell me exactly how to get to the particular train I needed to go to and was pleasant to converse with during my transaction.

I pushed the green happy face to the far left. 

Good start to the trip. 

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I Cleaned. Everything.

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A friend of mine came over to my apartment around March and asked me how I keep my apartment from being bombarded with stuff. A really nice compliment because in the back of my mind I'm always thinking, "Why do I have so much stuff? Am I secretly a hoarder?"

Every season I do a clean out of things in my apartment. Most of the time, this activity deals with the cleansing and refreshing of: clothes, refrigerated goods, pantry items, and the most accessible storage closet I have. What this means is that I have a storage closet that is massively piled with "just in case" goods, bookcases I have not reorganized, technology items that have been shoved into boxes, and so much more. I figured that if I wanted to recharge my batteries and situate myself in a space that felt new and refreshed, I needed to cleanse my physical space of habitation.

So I cleaned. Everything.

It wasn't the seasonal type of cleaning. It was a wipe out of everything in my apartment. It took me 3 days to go through everything from room to room and throughout the activity I was met with many thoughts. 
 

"Why do I still have this?"
"Will I need this in the future?"
"I wonder if they make these anymore."
"How can I go about changing my activity around this?"
... and so much more.


When it was all said and done (which really means I decided that a first round was successful) I slept even better that night. However, there will be a round 2.

I heard about a book called "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing" by Marie Kondo and I plan on reading it while in Copenhagen. We'll see what happens.

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I Could Sleep. I Could Wake.

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I slept soundly.

I woke up at 7:30am, without an alarm, and I was happy to get out of bed. 

Good sign. 

One of the things I struggled a lot with during the last 6 months of my job was the inability to sleep at night and the dreaded morning alarm that rang right when I felt like I had just fallen asleep. 

I am a person who loves to work. I put a lot of time and energy into my craft of producing experiences in whatever medium I am met with. 

I know this about myself. I love my line of work. I enjoy designing and creating. I do it sometimes until I literally have to force myself to sleep if I am really enjoying the particular subject matter or project. For someone like me to have no motivation in the morning to get to work, something needed to be done and I know I made the right choice. It was a glaring red flag that I could not avoid staring at every day.

Part of me worried that my sleeping patterns would get worse due to new anxieties that were entering my life, but what I realized is that there are good anxieties and bad anxieties - and these new anxieties were extensions of taking a leap of faith. 

I'm happy to get my sleep back.

What Is A Sabbatical?

I first heard of the word sabbatical in practice when I was at the Hamilton Wood Type Museum in Two Rivers, WI from a guy named Robert Zolna. He stated that his time period was 1 full year. Since he was in the same field of work that I am in, it sparked my interest and as I began to talk to him about his current commitment, I was even more intrigued at the state of peace he was in and how much he was enjoying his decision.

It made me think.
 

What exactly was he doing on a daily basis?
What was his goal? 
Was he lonely?
What made him take the step to do so?


So I looked it up. Being a book nerd, I naturally went to the dictionary first and this is what I found:

sab·bat·i·cal

səˈbadək(ə)l/
noun
1.  a leave often with pay granted to a college teacher for study or travel, traditionally every seventh year.
2. a period of time during which someone does not work at his or her regular job and is able to rest, travel, do research, etc.
3. a break or change from a normal routine (as of employment)

adjective
1. of or relating to a sabbatical.
2. (archaic) of or appropriate to the sabbath.

 

Three things I gathered from this definition were: 

1) Every seven years of work
Reflecting back on my work life, I began to count and the years and it amounted to 7. Check. 

2) A break/change that can involve rest, travel, research, etc.
Good place to start thinking of structure and goals. I know I need to rest, I love to travel, and I'm always researching no matter what I'm doing. Perhaps more definitive structure will benefit non-structured time schedules. Ok, got it.

3) Related to the word 'sabbath'
I grew up in a very Jewish town and knowledge of religious meanings were prevalent. I know what keeping the sabbath is from a biblical perspective: A day of rest. A period of time to absorb solely for yourself to reflect on your surroundings. The folks in my town would lay back, attend a synagogue when the sun went down, and really take in the purpose of the day. So I concluded that what I needed to do was do nothing but rest and reflect with purpose. Check.

So then the question became, how long? To take a break for a year was probably not the best for me in my particular situation so I decided that 2-3 months would be a good time period and that I could gage from there whether or not I needed more time.  

But what goals would I be pursuing? 

I know that I love my industry and the mediums I have chosen for my art work so I decided that my goals would be the following:
1) What subject matter in UX/Service Design would I want to tackle next?
2) What project would inspire me to push my letterpress art further?

Through the next few months, I hope that I will be able to find the answers to these questions.

Why I Decided to Take a Sabbatical

Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina.

I told somebody a few weeks ago that I was going to take a mini-sabbatical. 
 

He replied, "Aren't you too young to do that?" 


The question made me uncomfortable. Within those few seconds before I had an answer, I went through every single emotion I felt during the last 6 months while coming to this decision for myself. 

My thoughts were: Was I overstepping my sense of importance in the working world? Did I deserve to go on a sabbatical? I think I'm a hard worker... I'm pretty sure I am a hard worker. What exactly does the word 'sabbatical' even mean? What are you supposed to do during that time? I suppose I am still young... but do I have to be in my forties for this to be socially acceptable? What if I am deemed lazy when I return? Will I be relevant when I return? Is this right? Is this good? 
 

I took a breath, looked at him and said, "No. I'm not too young. You see, the way I work is very different from others - I put a lot of myself into my work and have done so for the past 7 years. I need to do this for myself right now, otherwise, I will lose who I am and will no longer be able to contribute to the world in the way I would like to for the future." 


So I did it.

It's my first time but I'm going to try to articulate the thoughts I have throughout this period. Brace yourselves - I have no idea what will happen.