Contemplating a career break and think you’re alone in how you feel? Read how Sherry Ott came to the decision to leave her life behind and travel. This post was originally written at the beginning of her 16-month career break.

[singlepic=1437,200,,,right]Someone once called me a tumbleweed – I only stay somewhere about three years and then I must tumble to the next place. Yet this time, I’m tumbling to the next adventure – the globe. This propensity to tumble around is strange considering I grew up in the midwest (Peoria, IL) in the same house for the first 18 years of my life. Then something happened…I got out…and never looked back. I slowly moved to bigger and bigger cities. First the midwest (Omaha, Minneapolis), then the west coast (San Francisco), then the big, big city – NYC. I’ve been in NYC three years now and I’m itchin’ to tumble again!

I was 30 yrs old when I got my first passport and went out of the country – Istanbul. I went with my friend, Giancarlo, who grew up in that area. It was overwhelming to have Turkey be the first country you go visit, but that’s when I caught the bug. Part of me wishes I could do that trip over again as I feel like more of a seasoned traveler now, but at the same time the newness and innocence of it all was perfect.

I have been working in the Information Technology industry and have finally realized that no matter how lucrative of a job it is – it’s not me. I don’t get excited by bits and bytes. I hate being in a rut or in any sort of predictable pattern. After three years in my current job, I have developed a pattern and I think I would explode if I had to go through yet another predictable year in my current job.

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But most days I feel like I’m stuck – stuck in my white box, not really knowing what value I’m adding to the world let alone what value I’m adding to the numerous meetings I’m attending. New York and my corporate life finally got the better of me and a plan started to hatch.

My sample day…get up way too early, run in the park, dash off to work on a crowded subway of other people staring lifelessly into space tethered to their ipod, check email on my crackberry on the subway, arrive at work. Go to my office which I call my white box (no windows and nothing on the walls), check email, go to a meeting, go to a meeting, go to a meeting in which lunch is served, check email, go to a meeting, go to a meeting, go to a meeting, do work for the last hour I’m there. Many times I can go all day without ever going outside or seeing the sun, and sometimes I never even make it to the bathroom (ok – maybe that’s too much information). I have a picture of a collage of sunsets in my office – it’s my fake window…I stare at it to remind me of what the sun looks like.

[singlepic=1436,200,,,right]However, I don’t mean to paint such a dismal picture. I do owe a lot to work, and I work with good people, smart people – people who like what they do and are generally ok with being in a pattern. After all, if it wasn’t for work, I wouldn’t be able to take this adventure. And for that I’m eternally grateful to my job. But most days I feel like I’m stuck – stuck in my white box, not really knowing what value I’m adding to the world let alone what value I’m adding to the numerous meetings I’m attending. New York and my corporate life finally got the better of me and a plan started to hatch.

Who hasn’t wanted to quite their job and travel around the world at some point in their adult life? I just believe that you have to leave a mark on this world, see this world, experience this world.

So maybe this is my midlife crisis – a little early I know. But I’m not really sure what is driving me to do this. I just know that I need a break. A break from New York, a break from Information Technology, and I need to stretch my creative muscles a bit, see other things, and find myself.

Everyone always asks me what I’m going to do when I come back. I have no answer to that question, and that makes me nervous. But I’m telling myself to live each day to the fullest and not worry about it. I will leave my dance card wide open and just see what happens. However, mainly I will enjoy my year of not being in a conference room, with an agenda about stuff that doesn’t interest me. I will no longer have to daydream during those meetings about other exotic places – I will be living it.

Read Sherry’s reflections after 16 months on the road in “Meet Sherry…This is Now”.

For more of Sherry’s adventures as a Corporate America Runaway, visit her blog.