I turned off my alarm and went back to sleep this morning. I've lost track of how many times I've done this, how many times the dread of going into the office has led me back to unconsciousness, if only to avoid reality for another half hour.

I scrambled out of bed a bit later when I noticed the time, threw some clothes into my bag, and hopped on my bike to get to work. Speeding down the DC hill to the lettered streets below was the only way I could make it on time. I arrived at the office to the tune of closing elevator doors - the jerk in front of me couldn't be bothered to hold them.

Upstairs, I flipped on my computer, the same screen at which I've stared for eight hours every day for four years, and for what? So I could make barely enough money to pay the rent and not much more?

How does one decide when to travel? I've decided. I've decided to travel to Bulgaria where the cost of living does not require indentured servitude. I've decided that the headache glow of the office lights was soul torture, that the monotony and boredom was a teeth-gnashing, fire-dwelling Hell in its own right. I've decided to take it all in, a festival of culture unknown to me, an escape, a place to find my soul lost in the mess of the modern world. I'm going to Bulgaria, a land with funny letters that remind me of the warnings on nuclear weapons. It's a country where life is still life instead of money, where the rakia flows freely through the friendship of strangers, and where there are still corners untouched by the manic pace of current time.

Life, I've decided, is too short to be holed up in an office all day, your mind growing more numb with each 0 or 1 that passes through your computer screen, gouging your eyes with its artificial light and overloading your brain with mostly useless information.

So go on, take that break from the confines of your quotidian rituals. How do you decide when to travel? Book your ticket and go now!

Learn more about this author, Cathie Glover.
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