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Nuala O’Hanlon left a fashion marketing role at Primark to learn Pilates and backpack Asia.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
Her travels through Asia reignited her love for fashion and pushed her to freelance full time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
She said she would not mind returning to corporate life.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Nuala O’Hanlon, who quit her marketing role at Primark in Dublin to backpack through Asia. It has been edited for length and clarity.<\/em><\/p>\n I’ve been in the fashion merchandising and marketing industry for my decadelong career. I started taking on visual merchandising gigs in college and began working for major retailers, including Primark, after graduation.<\/p>\n I genuinely loved the work, my colleagues, and the fast pace. But over the last year, there was a small voice in the back of my head asking, “What else?”<\/p>\n It wasn’t burnout or a breaking point that made me question this. It was more that I was being presented with a crossroad: New opportunities for promotions were opening up at work, and I could see a clear path forward if I wanted it.<\/p>\n But I’d also fallen deeply in love with Pilates<\/a>. I was spending all my spare time practicing it in the studio. Teaching wasn’t even on my radar at first \u2014 I just loved how it made me feel. I also couldn’t shake the thought of travel. I had used my annual leave well and had seen bits of the world, but I’d never taken extended time to explore. I kept thinking: If I don’t do it now, when will I? If I keep progressing to the next role, taking the next promotion, what does it mean for both those things I wanted to pursue?<\/p>\n After a three-week trip to Mexico, I came home and started saving seriously. I worked backward, figuring out how much I’d need and how long it would take to get there. In June, I handed in my notice.<\/p>\n Before I left to backpack full time<\/a>, I trained as a Pilates instructor. It felt completely opposite to what I’d been doing. Instead of creative brainstorms and campaign decks, I was learning anatomy and sitting written exams for the first time in years. It was really challenging but enjoyable. I loved sharing the practice with more people and seeing them progress in the classes.<\/p>\n Then in September, I packed everything into a backpack<\/a> and flew to Sri Lanka. From there, I traveled through Singapore, Vietnam, China, Korea, and Indonesia. I tried to fill my days as much as possible. I love lying on a beach, but I also discovered I love being active and trying new things, which was also a great way to meet people.<\/p>\n This is the fourth installment of “Beyond the break,” for which Business Insider’s Shubhangi Goel spent five days at a surf camp in Bali, Indonesia, reporting on career breaks and adventure sports.<\/p>\n Read the others:<\/p>\n I showed up to surf camp solo once and walked away with a community I keep coming back for<\/a><\/p>\n I flew to Bali for a surf camp. A conversation I had there about failure inspired me to launch a small business.<\/a><\/p>\n My manager and I got laid off, so we packed up our wetsuits and went to surf camp in Bali<\/a><\/p>\n In China, I went tea picking and hiked through the mountains. In Korea, I was blown away by the scale of retail experiences \u2014 massive pop-ups and immersive brand events <\/a>that actually reignited my excitement for fashion and marketing. I took Pilates classes everywhere I went, observing how different studios ran their businesses.<\/p>\n In December, I even attended a surf camp in Bali. Even though I was coming from the fitness industry, I found it really physically rigorous. It made me want to work on becoming a stronger swimmer and on my balance and reflexes. Being thrown around on these huge waves and being battered by the surfboard gave me a lot of confidence. It made me feel like everything was easy from here, and I could do anything.<\/p>\nLearning to pick tea and surf<\/h2>\n
Best of both worlds<\/h2>\n