Your days of being wild

[Savonarola]

One of my cousins (sister of the guy who just had his window shot out) is something of a free spirit.  She's been an au pair in a couple European countries and South Africa; worked a couple dead end jobs overseas, got really into acid for some time, studied yoga in Indonesia and is now contemplating a move to the big island of Hawaii with her fiance to open her own yoga retreat.  They're there right now, they live in a primitive campground without electricity or running water where they perform some menial tasks to defray the cost of their stay.  They have no transportation, and rely on hitchhiking in order to make it to town.  My cousin has found a job helping a guy with either autism or Asperger syndrome deal with people, but she has to hitch hike to that job too.  Naturally her mother (my godmother) is appalled by all of this; but I suspect in a decade she'll be the most successful person I know and will amuse people with her stories of her days of being wild.

I'm curious if anyone here has ever "Dropped out" like that.

I haven't (in case you thought I was going in that direction).  I graduated from college at age 22 with a STEM degree, joined the corporate work force a couple months later and stayed there ever since, with a few months of unemployment.

[The Brain]

Army, STEM, work. Don't know if I qualify.

[Valmy]

Nope. I have certainly known plenty of people who did stuff like that though.

[Malthus]

Sort of. Growing up I worked in the family pottery business. After university, I saved some cash and travelled for six months through SE Asia. Then, I attempted to start up my own sculpture studio, but I could not make it pay. I was no stranger to various hallucinogenic drugs. 

[Zanza]

Nope, I am a boring nerd. I've studied and worked abroad, but never in deadend backpacker jobs or so.

I've met quite a few people like your cousin. From that I would say that there is an equal chance that she becomes the most successful person you know or that she stays a deadbeat who lives from day to day. I've met quite a few of the latter on backpacking trips all over the world. They keep telling you that's what they want in their mid-30s and you feel a bit boring having a career, an apartment and maybe a family, but wonder if they really want to keep on doing that forever.

[Iormlund]

I'm too lazy for that.

My cousin dropped out from engineering school and went full hippy (living in a commune and all). He's 35 and I doubt he'll ever amount to anything.

My brother left his job and spent months biking and hiking through the Balkans and Turkey. He has a much better job now.

One of his friends (the one that got him into travelling) has an interesting way of life. He travels like a backpacker for months until he finds some place he likes. Then looks for a job there (he's a software engineer so he can work almost anywhere). Once he's bored of his current home the cycle starts anew.
He's lived in Denmark, Russia, Argentina, Colombia, The Netherlands, Germany ... and visited half the world in the meantime.

[MadImmortalMan]

It's my retirement plan.

I tend to do a lot of things in life in reverse. 

[dps]

That sort of lifestyle does give you a good place to set up monster wargames, so I've never seriously contemplated it.

[Barrister]

My days of living wild was May 2000.  I had graduated law school, but my articling job didn't start until June (and in another province).  I was living in a fraternity house.  I hung out with friends, went on a camping trip or two and was generally a bum.

And that's it.  I've been working ever since, 16 years and counting.  Well, I was inbetween jobs for two months in 2002, but that didn't feel very wild.  And I was on paternity leave for three months with Timothy, but with a newborn that didn't exactly feel very wild either.

[The Brain]

That sort of lifestyle does give you a good place to set up monster wargames, so I've never seriously contemplated it.

[garbon]

I generally try to avoid slumming it.

[DGuller]

I had a period of about half a year after graduating college when I was experimenting with different things, before getting my first and only job.  Mainly different ways of composing resumes and cover letters.

[mongers]

I had a period of about half a year after graduating college when I was experimenting with different things, before getting my first and only job.  Mainly different ways of composing resumes and cover letters.

[Jacob]

I've done a bit of being "wild" or "finding myself" or whatever you want to call it.

I didn't start a career type job until my mid 20s. Before then I had a reasonable bit of travelling, drinking, going to art school, working generic jobs and so on. That said, that didn't change that much after I started my actual career - in fact I probably traveled more after I got that job by taking extended (sometimes non-paying) vacations. In my student/ low paying job days I did some hitch hiking and Greyhound bus travelling jaunts as well.

Drugs? Not really... I experimented a bit but that was mostly in high school. Didn't seem worth it to me. Booze has remained my drug of choice.

[Monoriu]

Business degree, civil service, no gap in between.