The law firm my father worked at when I was a kid allowed partners to take a 3 month sabbatical every 5 years. When I was 13, we got to take advantage of this and my family spent 3 amazing months touring western europe.

 My mom tricked my sister and me and told us that our school had given us a summer assignment to keep a journal. I was pretty upset when I finally got to school and found out the journal was just my mom’s idea. But now I’m glad she made us record our experiences.

 The trip made such an impression on me that I knew one day I would want to do something similar, and that day has finally come. Fortunately, I don’t have to drag around some kids with me.

 I’ve been thinking about taking this break for a while. I started my company over 7 years ago, which makes it the longest job I’ve had, and I’ve been itching to work on a new project. In addition, I’ve been in New York for 10 years, and, although NYC will continue to be my home, I want to experience living somewhere new and meeting new people.

 I’ve packed up my apartment and am going to sublet it. I’m entrusting my employees to manage the company, and we hired two great people to build out the team. The company probably won’t do as well without me, since I am irreplaceable :), but it will do fine and that’s a tradeoff I’m willing to make.

  I plan on living abroad for the rest of the year, which is actually almost 7 months, but I’ll be doing part-time work for my company at the outset. I am starting with some vacation in Madrid and St Petersburg, and then I’m going to settle in Berlin for at least a month. I also plan on living in London for a couple of months and visiting India for a month later in the year. Besides being in Berlin for the month of July, nothing is set in stone and I’ll play it by ear.

 I’m fortunate that I can do this. Part of it is the benefit of being successfully self-employed, part is because I have the best family and friends I could hope for, and part is the value I place on quality of life outside of work.

 I’ve been stressed the last couple of weeks trying to get ready, and another week to get everything in order would have really helped, but tickets had been bought and the adventure begins!