Why I Broke My Lease and Moved To South America
Reducing my cost of living to pursue my curiosities
On January 9th, I learned that I’d soon be out of a job when my employer announced its discontinuation.
On that day, 70% of our team was let go. The remaining 5 employees were selected for a skeleton team with one task: wind down the brand as gracefully as possible. Corporate assisted suicide.
To see your best friends suddenly become unemployed to no fault of their own is agonizing. The only consolation is in knowing how talented each of them is and how lucky their next employers will be to land them.
As for me, I was one of the five. This meant that I was at least employed for a little while longer.
Employment means income, and in America, it also means health care, dental care, and therapy.
The expectation was that the discontinuation would be completed by spring. For personal planning purposes, this meant we should expect to be unemployed and without income and benefits by May 1st, at the latest.
Rather than ask what subject line was best for the day’s scheduled campaign, I was now asking myself what life would look like after May 1st.
