The pictures say it all.

Sometime in early June, maybe late May, I bought a tent for backcountry hiking.

I didn’t have a specific use for it yet, but my good friend had been talking about returning to the mountains for a hiking trip later this Summer for months now. Although I was employed at the time, he booked backcountry hiking sites with an extra spot for me hoping that this strategy would — in his words — “cultivate unemployment.” My tent is now snugly packed into my 40L sack sitting at my side in Pearson Airport’s Terminal 1, Gate D39. Unemployment has indeed been “cultivated.”

In the past three days, I worked my final day at a (very secure and well-paying) job I have held for the last two and a half years, went to a Toronto Blue Jays game with my girlfriend, gone about my daily habits of working out and walking, and packed for the two-week hiking expedition in the Canadian Rockies we are now setting out on.

This trip marks the start of an uncertain but exciting period of my life. Leaving a job to create new, more exciting opportunities. Traveling the world. Exploring and redefining what is possible for my life.

Here’s to pushing boundaries and exploring new ground.

Jack