It was 4.15am, pitch black, on a shuttle bus in Guatemala, when I overheard a conversation between two travellers. Let’s call them Girl A and Girl B:

Girl A: “I quit my job a few months ago so I could travel longer.”

Girl B, with a tiny laugh: “You quit?! What a luxury. I don’t have that—just two weeks here.”

Girl B’s use of the word ‘luxury’ just sat with me for a while. Her response was immediate, and I was going back and forth in my mind between whether it was rude of her to say that, or if she had just cause.

Maybe she truly felt like being able to quit your job was a luxury—maybe she didn’t have capacity in her life for career risk.

But what if she could take that risk, but she just needed to put a safe, comfortable distance between herself and the possibility of doing something like that?

Is quitting your job a luxury? And what even is luxury nowadays, anyway?