This 23-year-old quit her job and today lives in her car, happier than ever

In this episode, we follow a 23-year-old woman who's taking a break from life on the road. Always a high-achiever, she abruptly quit her intense science job to explore the world while living out of her car. Eager to continue chasing her passion in science, she's learned to prioritize work / life balance the next time she puts on her lab coat.

Video Transcript

[BACKGROUND NOISES]

- So I graduated early and then got hired on as a lab manager and research scientist kind of combo position. And that's kind of where I first realized the problems in science. I say "in science." It's not really science. It's in how humans tend to practice science. One of them was work-life balance. As I was driving home, there were all these just latent realizations coming to me as I was like, yeah, wait, actually, no.

I think I should probably quit my job, and I think I probably could get away with not working full-time for a while if I didn't have to pay for rent. And I could just have a little bed platform and a little solar panel and a small car fridge. These are all ideas I came up with and, more or less, ended up doing. The rest was just me walking outside in nature, and I found out there was very few needs I actually had.

I could go and live out in the hills or something for weeks at a time, which was great for thought and contemplation. I haven't spent much time with myself. I'm extremely extroverted. I love other people. But as a result, I spend too much time around people. And I'm really happy to say I've made a lot of progress with that, and most of it came from this big, long car life period.

[BACKGROUND NOISES]