Months earlier, I’d decided it wasn’t working for me in Toronto. My salary wasn’t cutting it. Friends flaking on plans was becoming a pattern. Cost of living was rising. The office I worked in was unprofessional and both my patience and my motivation had run out.

Wintertime lingered and my mood took a hit with the dwindling daylight hours. I regularly found myself unable to sleep. I’d lie awake and see 2am, then 3am. Sometimes I’d see the sunrise, and then feel groggy all day. The insomnia felt like a tell-tale sign, my body screaming that something was up. As a result, I seemed to catch every cold going around.

Finally, I arrived home from work one day in May of last year and there was a ‘for sale’ sign on the lawn of my rented apartment. The thought of sifting through the city’s high-priced and rat-infested rental market sent me into a panic. “Let the house sell,” I told my roommate. Because I’m kicking it quarter-life-crisis style and moving to South America.

How ditching the 9-5 and moving to South America cured my quarter-life crisis