A woman decided to take a sabbatical despite having a good career. However, at the beginning it was difficult for her to simply do nothing. But now she is happier than ever.
Alma Rex-Ezonfade (31) gave herself a gift: a year without work. However, her new life wasn’t that easy for her. She admits: “I was very sad in the first few months of my sabbatical year.” She reports this on “Business Insider”.
The woman lives in Toronto and came to Canada from Nigeria at the age of 22 to study for a master’s degree. She then started her professional life. Ultimately, however, she felt like she was on a hamster wheel, the woman reports on “Business Insider.” As a customer success manager, she earned around 110,000 Canadian dollars (around 75,000 euros) a year. According to “omr.de”, in this job you are responsible for the care and satisfaction of customers.
Alma also earned money as a content creator and made another $200,000 (around 136,000 euros), according to the Business Insider article. She is followed by 22,000 people on Instagram. She saved around 47,000 euros for her sabbatical year, which started in April 2023.
A week after she quit, Alma went to a hotel. She cried there the whole time. “There were tears of gratitude, tears of exhaustion, tears of relief.” However, it was difficult for her to do nothing for the first few days. She was also worried about money. She wondered if she should use it to buy a house. It was only after a few months that she became comfortable with her sabbatical.
Among other things, she traveled through Europe, spent time with her family and worked on her own clothing brand. “Some of my fondest memories of my sabbatical are the many days I spent just sitting on my couch, watching TV, and only getting up to eat,” she is quoted as saying on Business Insider.
During her year off, she learned that many things are not so serious. “As an immigrant, many things are very serious; I had to start a new life in Canada and prove myself in this life. But I realized that I have to enjoy life.” She continues: “I’ve never been happier, and I’m more broke than ever.”
Now she plans to take a job again. At the age of 35, she would like to take another sabbatical year – and do this again and again until she retires.
An online survey with 1,079 participants showed that people between the ages of 50 and 59 are particularly interested in such a break. This is reported by sabbatjahr.org. Because 40.7 percent of the participants who planned such a break were between 50 and 59 years old. Another 25.9 percent were between 40 and 49 years old.
The 30 to 39 year olds were represented at 18.4 percent and the 22 to 29 year olds at 6.8 percent. Participants over 60 years old showed the least interest at 5.8 percent. The survey took place from September 7, 2022 to June 14, 2023.
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