Can I have 3 months off work.. to travel?

Today was the day I finally stopped putting off that question. The one that I had been sitting on for months.

I knew I had to eventually tell my employer what my plans where for the fall, and this time they weren’t a continued university education.

For those of you who don't know, I work as an accountant at ClearTech Industries. They are a midsize chemical company. I started there as a summer student last year in the accounting department and never got around to leaving. Actually, that's quite a modest statement. I would have to say that my current job is without a doubt the best I've had yet and will be exceptionally hard to beat anytime in the near future.

My affection for my current job was one of the reasons I had put off asking ‘the’ question for so long. What if they said “No, you have to choose. It’s either us or the trip”? I should have known better, and unconsciously I think I did, but I have a tendency to play out the worst of situations in my head.

It was mid-afternoon. My boss had just gotten back from lunch with a friend and the office was steadily busy, catching up on work from the long weekend. I had gone over what I was going to say to him in my head all morning, I had it all planned out.. Then, as soon as I could sit down in one of his office chair’s.. it was gone. I pushed on, but it wasn’t coming out nearly as smooth as when I practiced the speech in my head. It didn’t matter. My boss seemed ecstatic that I wanted to go backpacking in India! 3 months off work? “No problem”. Employment when I come back? “Of course! Whatever works for you Simon.”

Sometimes I wonder how I’m going to get use to another office, job, coworkers, and boss in the future. Will it be like one of those relationships set to fail from the start? Always comparing to previous lovers or in my case... jobs. How did I land a job with such a flexible and understanding company? I don’t know, but I’m glad I did.