• Alma Rex-Ezonfade spent over a year saving up $51,300 to take an "adult gap year."
• She initially found it difficult to do nothing but learned to enjoy herself and explore new hobbies.
• She launched her own clothing brand, is applying to 9-to-5 jobs, and plans to take more sabbaticals.

Editor's note: This list was first published in May 2024 and most recently updated on January 2, 2025.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with 31-year-old Alma Rex-Ezonfade based in Toronto, Canada. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

On my 29th birthday, I opened a savings account and put $500 in it. I had told myself that for my 30th birthday, I would gift myself a one-year sabbatical, and this was my first step in making that dream of taking an "adult gap year" a reality.

I was tired of working and always being on top of things. I immigrated to Canada from Nigeria when I was 22 for my master's degree and started working right after graduating. It felt like I had been running on a hamster wheel, and I was just going, going, going, going.

I calculated my budget for the year

Before taking my gap year, I was a customer success manager at Astreya making around 110,000 CAD ($80,500) and a content creator. Between my 9-to-5 salary and my income from working with brands and doing campaigns, I was making nearly 200,000 CAD ($146,600) a year.

I calculated how much I actually needed to save based on my spending at the time.

For necessities like rent, car payments, groceries, gas, my phone bill, and utilities, I estimated around 4,200 CAD ($3,100) a month. I also decided I wanted to travel, which I knew would be a bit pricey because I'm not a budget traveler. I planned for 18,000 CAD ($13,200) for two big trips and a number of smaller ones.

Altogether, I calculated that I would need to save around 70,000 CAD ($51,300) for my sabbatical, which I did by putting most of my content creator income into my sabbatical fund. If I didn't have my job as a content creator, I would've picked up a part-time job to generate that supplemental income.

I also cut back on expenses. I was never too shy to say "I can't afford that" or "I can't do that activity," because I was planning for something that had way higher priority than going out and spending $200 in one night.

I left my job but struggled to not do anything

Saving up took me a little longer than I had planned, but I quit my job in April 2023.

The day I quit, I just spent the whole day at home, watching the TV blankly. I didn't do anything else; I just needed my brain to shut off.

On Monday, I woke up at 8 a.m. as usual because I forgot that I didn't have a job. Then I remembered I could sleep in, but I was already awake, so I tried to figure out my new routine.

I started to put together a plan, and then I realized that would just defeat the whole purpose. The plan was to let go.

Still, I didn't feel like I could just not do anything. I found myself planning for my upcoming trips, brainstorming content ideas for my YouTube channel, and posting more regularly on my Instagram page. I had thought about starting my own clothing brand for years, so I started working on ideas for that too.

One of my friends said to me, "The whole point was for you to not work. Why can't you not work?"

The week after I quit, I checked myself into a hotel for a couple of days, ordered room service, and cried the entire time. My tears were tears of gratitude, tears of exhaustion, tears of relief. I was letting myself feel like, "Okay, I did it and I'm here."

I was used to being a high performer, managing a team, having deliverables, and doing all these things. I had to get used to the idea of not working and get over feeling like I wasn't useful because I wasn't being productive. I had to shift to having my validation come from my own happiness and seeing my value beyond my work output.

Three weeks into my sabbatical, one of my former bosses reached out to me to tell me about a contract role at Google that she wanted me to interview for. Honestly, I almost took it, because I wasn't used to the idea of not having work.

It took some getting used to, but eventually, I was able to go a whole week without doing any work.

Did I make the right decision?

The first few months when I was on sabbatical, I was so sad.

I looked at all the money that I had put in my sabbatical account and thought of everything else that I could have done with that money rather than lounge for a whole year.

Maybe I should just take it out and buy a house, I thought. I even asked my real-estate agent friend to look up properties for me, but I knew that if I bought the house instead, I'd be miserable, always wondering what I could've achieved if I just took the year off.

I remember talking to my therapist and trying to validate the decision time after time. At the end of the day, I realized that I was at the best point of my life to give this gift to myself. A few months in, once I settled on that, I started to have fun with the idea that I was on a sabbatical.

I learned to enjoy myself

I enjoyed having the luxury of time to do whatever I wanted.

I fell in love with working out again. I started coloring, drawing, and doing ceramics. I started reading again and got back into writing. I spent more time with myself and with my family. I picked up childhood hobbies again, like building Legos and taking Polaroid photos. I also cooked more and tried new coffee spots in Toronto.

Some of my favorite memories from my sabbatical are the many days I spent just sitting on my couch watching TV and only getting up to eat. I finished all six seasons of "Downton Abbey" in one week. I also watched all of "Schitt's Creek" and a lot of Korean shows.

Working on my clothing brand became a passion project. I learned about fabrics and the fashion industry — I enjoyed just learning things for the sake of learning.

I visited friends and family in other countries, did some birthday trips with friends, went on a seven-day cruise to the Caribbean, and spent four weeks traveling Europe.

I launched my own clothing brand and am looking at full-time roles

In May, after a full year of my sabbatical, my sabbatical funds were almost fully drained, and my income as a content creator was keeping me afloat. I thought I'd be panicking about my finances, but taking the time off helped me develop a mindset shift; I knew I'd figure it out one way or another. I was the most broke I'd ever been, but I'd never been happier.

That month, I launched my fashion brand, which has been doing well. I've been focused on running and growing it full-time, and in the near future, I hope to hire a team to take over the day-to-day tasks. In the meantime, I've been financially relying on savings and my content creator income, including several brand deals.

I've always been open to returning to a 9-5 workplace after my gap year, and I've been applying to roles that allow me to leverage my skills as a customer success manager, an entrepreneur, and a creative. I plan to continue running my clothing brand full-time as well.

I plan to take many more sabbaticals

I'm very happy with my path. I just feel kind of sad that I had to take a whole year off of work to find joy in my life.

One of the biggest things I'm taking away from this sabbatical is realizing that a lot of things are not that serious. When you're an immigrant, a lot of things are that serious; I had to start life over again in Canada and I had to excel at this life. But I just kept going and going and going, and I realized that I needed to enjoy life.

I'd absolutely do a sabbatical again. My loved ones have pointed out that I'm less grumpy, I shout less, and I'm less controlling. My plan is to work in a corporate job for another three years to get more experience and knowledge, take another year off at 35, and repeat that cycle until I retire.

My sabbatical was really about redefining what happiness looks like at different points in my life. I needed time away to de-stress and prioritize the things I thought were important, and now, I'm going back with a fresher outlook on my professional career and personal life goals.

If you took a sabbatical and would like to share your story, email Jane Zhang at [email protected].

• I used my savings and a $15,000 gift from my mom to travel and temporarily move to Italy in my 30s.
• Living in Italy taught me how to appreciate spontaneity and fulfilled me creatively.
• The experience also showed me that it's OK to ask for help and take more risks.

In 2022, I was working a 9-to-5 job, saving money each month, and living a fairly responsible life.

But by January 2023, I couldn't shake the feeling that my life in San Francisco was no longer serving me. My friends were starting to buy houses or get married, but I wasn't interested in these pursuits.

Instead, I started to think about traveling and taking an "adult gap year" in Italy. I lived there while studying abroad in college and knew I wanted to return.

I'd also saved $30,000 to either invest in a house or put toward something else. So when I turned 30 that year, I used my savings and $15,000 from my mom to travel, take a gap year, and find "La Dolce Vita" in Italy.

I used the money I'd saved and a gift from my mom to travel and start building a life in Italy

At first, my friends and family thought I was wild for putting my job in San Francisco on hold to travel and spend time living in Italy. But gap years are becoming more popular with adults as they seek to reduce stress and travel more.

The only person who didn't question my plans was my mother. She'd always supported my dreams, and she told me she'd help me if I ran out of money.

That year, my mom gave me $5,000 for my birthday. In August 2023, I left the US to begin my adventure.

Using her gift and my savings, I spent a month traveling to five countries, visiting places like Egypt and Greece, before landing in Italy. Eventually, I hunted for an apartment there.

Living in Italy was amazing, but my lifestyle was expensive

When I arrived in Italy, I settled into an apartment in Florence.

My rent was about 1,185 euros, or about $1,250 a month, and I budgeted 50 euros a day for food and other items.

When I realized I could eat out for only 30 euros daily, I took advantage of the extra cash I'd saved and started buying Italian leather goods and other treats, often spending 100 to 300 euros per item.

I had a writing job, but my days were mostly free, so I could travel all week if I wanted to. As I adjusted to life in Italy, I met other adventurous people and started saying yes to spontaneous opportunities, like traveling to Japan and heading to Munich for Oktoberfest.

Eventually, I started running out of money. The four-star hotels I'd stayed in turned into two-star lodging, and I started taking the bus instead of taxis.

By Christmastime, I'd burned through about $20,000.

When I went home for the holidays, my mom helped fund my return to Italy

In December 2023, I came back to the US, hoping to return to Europe in January. However, I didn't know if I had the funds to do so. While home for the holidays, I learned I'd been accepted into a monthlong creative-writing residency in Florence.

I loved the life I'd had in Italy, and I knew I had to finish what I'd started. I didn't know if I could afford it, though, so, I asked my mother for help.

At first, she was hesitant to offer more financial support. Still, she saw the growth I'd been achieving abroad — I was learning to be more spontaneous and felt more creatively fulfilled than I had in a long time. Before I left, she gave me another $10,000 to use in Italy.

On my second trip, I stayed in Florence for six months before returning to the US for good.

Living in Italy was a once-in-a-lifetime experience — and I'm thankful my mom helped me do it

In Italy, I learned how to leave my house without a plan and go with the flow, whether I was getting my third pastry of the day or catching the sunset by the river.

I'm fortunate that my mom saw my personal growth and was able to support me.

My relationship with my mom even became stronger when I returned to the US. After seeing how inspired and full of life I was, she had no regrets about helping me get there.

Finding self-confidence in Italy was a priceless experience, and I'll always cherish the memories from my gap year.