I tried working in a 40 h/w well-paid job for a couple of years. Then, deciding I wanted something less commercial and a bit more social, I tried to switch jobs. That was in 2009. Then the crisis struck. Long story short: after 2 years of fruitless applying for jobs and spiralling into a depression that almost resulted in killing myself, I decided that the reason I was so unhappy was not just the constant rejection that made me want to my life, but that I tried to live a life that others expected from me (nice job, good pay, car, vacation, house yadda-yadda. The works.) Then I decided that I didn't see the logic in trying to find a job again in which I had to work for 40 hrs a week for 40 years of my life being too old to have fun and enjoy my life on a pension that's probably gone the moment I go and try to collect it. So I decided 'why not now?' Why not do what I like to do with my life? Hell, it's my life, not the life of someone else. I cancelled my appartment, packed my bag and have been backpacking and hitchhiking for 2 years; I'll work if I need some money or if I find work that interests me. And now I'm doing what I like to do: writing books, sculpting, designing tattoos, designing tarot-cards. Apart from that I can sheer sheep, build houses, milk goats, make cheese, work timber, build kilns, do basic masonry, advanced carpentry, design furniture (and sell it), cultivate gardens, track and hunt, tan hides and keep bees (among other things).

And I couldn't be happier.