We recently decided to change our website name from Cause Work Can Wait to Just Carrying On. Here’s why.

When we set out five years ago to plan and prepare our lives for a year of travel, it felt simple. If we saved enough money we could make it happen. And there’s some truth to that. During residency, Jason took jobs moonlighting (working extra shifts outside the residency program) to save enough to make it possible.

For us that meant saving enough so we could spend $100/day for a year and make Jason’s student loan payments, which aren’t ending anytime soon. Olivia quit her job. We rented our house to friends and sold our car. We packed our belongings and packed our bags. And said our goodbyes. First to Tanzania for a year of teaching and now on the road for a year of exploration.

In one sense, it was a series of checkboxes. In another, it was an emotional leap to put our medical careers on hold, leave the comfort of home, and embrace unfamiliarity.

As we were dreaming of our year we chose the name Cause Work Can Wait for this site. We wanted a place to explore our world in writing, a project to work on together, and a way to stay connected with friends and family.

The name was inspired by the idea that we are—in some ways actively and thoughtfully—rejecting the premise that career professionals can’t take significant time from work to travel. The dominant professional American narrative is to keep working harder, to make more money, to acquire more things, which requires more money, and therefore work. We wanted to step away from this and choose something different, to pry ourselves from the 9 to 5 (or the 7 to 7). Work can wait, and jobs will be there when we return home.

But not everyone lives in the reality of such a phrase.

Cause work can wait.

But can it? Certainly not for everyone.

What has become clearer to us—with time—is that our travel year would not be possible if not for our immense privilege. How many people can save thousands of dollars with plans to spend it almost immediately? And continue payments on a house mortgage and student loans while not generating an income? And fully expect to find a new job with after returning home?

Changing our website name doesn’t change our privilege. It is just a simple place to start. And we made the site, so we can change the site. So we are. Our new name speaks to our approach to packing (just carry ons) and our approach to travel (just carry on—mostly).

We hope you’ll follow along with us as we do.