{"id":39836,"date":"2025-12-01T01:01:22","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T01:01:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/usa\/my-husband-and-i-quit-our-jobs-to-travel-for-a-year-my-biggest-concern-was-having-a-career-gap-on-my-resume\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T01:01:22","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T01:01:22","slug":"my-husband-and-i-quit-our-jobs-to-travel-for-a-year-my-biggest-concern-was-having-a-career-gap-on-my-resume","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/usa\/my-husband-and-i-quit-our-jobs-to-travel-for-a-year-my-biggest-concern-was-having-a-career-gap-on-my-resume\/","title":{"rendered":"My husband and I quit our jobs to travel for a year. My biggest concern was having a career gap on my r\u00e9sum\u00e9."},"content":{"rendered":"<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/691fd834e1a9cbb014deaec5?format=jpeg\" alt=\"Maria Laposata and her husband in the Masai Mara, a national game reserve in Kenya, with elephants walking in the background.\"\/><figcaption>Maria Laposata and her husband left their jobs to spend a year traveling around the world.<\/p>\n<p>Provided by Maria Laposata<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li>Burned out from her job at an LA startup, Maria Laposata made a travel spreadsheet with her husband.<\/li>\n<li>The list inspired her to suggest quitting their jobs and traveling the world for a year.<\/li>\n<li>She thought the gap would hurt her r\u00e9sum\u00e9. Instead, it helped her stand out in interviews.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Maria Laposata, 32, the founder of travel consultancy <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.travelries.com\/\" rel=\"noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Travelries<\/em><\/a><em>. Her words have been edited for length and clarity.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Life made me realize I needed a break.<\/p>\n<p>My husband and I had moved in together just before the pandemic, and our one-bedroom apartment in Los Angeles had become both our offices. We were making it work, but I could feel the walls closing in.<\/p>\n<p>We both love to travel, so in an effort to dream a little, I said, &quot;Let&#039;s make a list of all the places we want to go.&quot; I&#039;m a bit of a spreadsheet nerd, so I took his list and mine, ranked them, and combined them into one massive spreadsheet. It was my little form of stress relief.<\/p>\n<p>At the time, I was working on the operations team at a startup in LA, and my schedule had become a lot more intense. I opened my laptop at 7 a.m. and closed it at midnight. I loved my job, but I was feeling burned out. On the rough days, I&#039;d look at that list and dream about African safaris or going to Antarctica.<\/p>\n<p>This story is part of our <strong>Adult Gap Year<\/strong> series, which highlights stories from people who have taken extended breaks to reset, explore, and reimagine their lives.<\/p>\n<p>Read more:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I spent 22 years as a military wife. After our divorce, I finally lived the dream we&#039;d planned together.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>I couldn&#039;t afford to take a gap year in college. So at 53, I retired early and did exactly that.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>One morning, while my husband was making me a cappuccino, I decided to pitch the idea to him: &quot;Hey babe, what if we quit our jobs and traveled around the world for three months?&quot; And he said, &quot;OK, sounds good.&quot; That&#039;s very him: calm, chill, no big reaction.<\/p>\n<h2>Planning for the trip<\/h2>\n<p>If we were going to take the risk of leaving our jobs, we wanted it to feel worth it. We decided the trip should last for a year<strong>,<\/strong> and it took us time to save and work through the logistics. Two years later, we both handed in our resignations.<\/p>\n<p>We set a $75,000 budget for the trip, which included everything from our Netflix subscription to the storage unit we rented. My manager was excited for me, but our families had a lot of questions: How would they contact us? Was it safe? What about diseases?<\/p>\n<p>Before the trip, I was worried about snakes in Africa and tsunamis in Southeast Asia \u2014 which is funny, because I live in Los Angeles on the Ring of Fire.<\/p>\n<p>My biggest concern was that a career gap would look like a black mark on my r\u00e9sum\u00e9. That ended up being completely false.<\/p>\n<p>After we finished our lease in LA \u2014 and convinced my mother-in-law to watch our cats \u2014 we were off.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/691fdd0189026fbb4d0e1f55?format=jpeg\" alt=\"Maria Laposata and her husband wearing sunglasses and standing with Rome&#039;s Colosseum in the background.\"\/><figcaption>The couple were able to enjoy the Colosseum in Rome with almost no one around.<\/p>\n<p>Provided by Maria Laposata<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>Around the world in 365 days<\/h2>\n<p>We started our trip in Rome, where we&#039;d enrolled in Italian school for two months. Walking through our neighborhood that first night \u2014 Aperol spritzes on tables, music in the air, a cat watching us from a balcony \u2014 it felt like Rome was saying, &quot;You made the right call.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>The next morning, we walked to class past the Colosseum and Pantheon before the tourists were out.<\/p>\n<p>One of the moments that really changed me happened halfway through the trip, when I turned 30. We were in Gili Air, a tiny island near Bali, on my birthday.<\/p>\n<p>Even in paradise, I found myself questioning whether I mattered at all \u2014 away from the birthday emails and office cakes that usually mark the day back home. I told my husband, &quot;I&#039;ve realized I don&#039;t matter,&quot; and he stopped and said, &quot;But you mean everything to me.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>I&#039;d always said he was my top priority, but in reality, work had always come first. In that moment, I realized how wrong I&#039;d been \u2014 and how much I needed to start actually living my life by what mattered most.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/691fde2ee1a9cbb014deaef7?format=jpeg\" alt=\"Maria Laposata posing with Singapore and Sentosa in the background.\"\/><figcaption>During the trip, Laposata, in Singapore, realized she needed to focus on priorities.<\/p>\n<p>Provided by Maria Laposata<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>Returning to LA<\/h2>\n<p>We decided to spend the last six months of the trip focusing on our job search and building skills. My husband built an app while we traveled, and I reconnected with former colleagues so it wouldn&#039;t feel out of the blue when I reached out later.<\/p>\n<p>When the plane landed and the pilot said, &quot;Welcome home to Los Angeles,&quot; it hit me that I had never pictured that moment. I&#039;d imagined so many scenes from our trip, but never the return.<\/p>\n<p>My husband and I both received job offers on our last day abroad, and I returned to work quickly. I was terrified I&#039;d slip back into old habits \u2014 the workaholic version of myself who didn&#039;t know how to be any other way. But this time, I really wanted to change.<\/p>\n<p>I wanted my husband to be at the top of my priorities list \u2014 because he&#039;s the reason I matter. When I think back on those moments, I&#039;m grateful that we took that trip. I&#039;m a profoundly different person because of it.<\/p>\n<h2>What came next<\/h2>\n<p>When I was laid off last August, I didn&#039;t rush to apply for new jobs. Instead, I returned to an idea I&#039;d had during our trip \u2014 how little support there is for people who want to travel long-term. That&#039;s when I started Travelries, a company that helps adults plan gap years and travel sabbaticals.<\/p>\n<p>In the end, the career gap on my r\u00e9sum\u00e9 ended up being one of the best decisions I ever made \u2014 and a guaranteed conversation starter in every job interview.<\/p>\n<p><em>Do you have a story about taking a gap year that you want to share? Get in touch with the editor: <\/em><em>akarplus@businessinsider.com<\/em><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Read the original article on Business Insider<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Maria Laposata and her husband left their jobs to spend a year traveling around the world. Provided by Maria Laposata Burned out from her job at an LA startup, Maria Laposata made a travel spreadsheet with her husband. The list inspired her to suggest quitting their jobs and traveling the world for a year. She [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39837,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-39836","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39836\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}