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The original was posted on /r/washingtondc by /u/Stock-Emergency5100 on 2025-06-29 17:08:20+00:00.


Like many of our friends and neighbors in the district I got caught up in the RIFs and am currently on administrative leave. I know I need to get a new job (eventually) but in the mean time I’ve been trying to turn negatives into positives.

I’ve been ambitious, hard working, and diligent my whole life going from AP classes in high school to graduating college early, a fellowship, grad school, another fellowship to now being let go from what I thought was the start of a secure career. I’m thinking that this time in my life might be an opportunity to explore things I’ve always wanted to do, like going on a writing retreat, working with elephants in Africa, or doing an archeological dig. The thing is that I’ve been ambitious for so long - constantly looking forward to “what’s next” - that at some point those “shoot for the moon dreams” didn’t disappear but rather became limited to cookie-cutter desires geared toward having a stable paycheck and building my resume. I want to use this newfound free time to explore things I might have shrugged off in the past because I did not think I had time for them or felt they wouldn’t benefit my academic or professional career.

Can you guys help me think of some out-of-the-box things to do, some adventures, I can experience before I enter the career world again?