What is Emotional Traveler?
It started as a way out. After a decade in US digital advertising (6am executive calls, aggressive revenue goals, giant egos), I realized the life I’d built wasn’t aligned with what I actually loved: travel, family, giving back. I was chasing commission checks to fund an expensive Los Angeles lifestyle and a few weeks of travel a year.
So I made a plan. Get out of debt, take care of my mental health, want less, and build enough runway to make a real change. I called it my Saudade, and it carried me through a sabbatical that turned into a new life.
That was years ago. Since then I’ve traveled to 50-plus countries, picked up an MBA at RMIT, and settled in Saigon, where I run Neves Digital Consulting. The career break became a career, just one I designed myself.
These days, Emotional Traveler is less a how-to and more a notebook: essays on life in Vietnam, the people and places in between, and the occasional honest look at what living abroad actually feels like. If you’re thinking about your own career break, start with Life Abroad. If you just like a good story, start with the Essays.
-Casey