‘I gave up paying rent to live in a tent.’ She hit the highway during COVID job search
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We’re not going back
The pandemic showed many of us that life is fragile, and there’s no time to waste. The Miami Herald Editorial Board reached out to women who made changes in their lives — shifting careers, fulfilling hobbies, and dedicating more time to things that made their lives more meaningful.
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The Miami Herald Editorial Board spoke with South Florida women as part of a project on challenges women are facing during the pandemic, both at work and at home.
In 2019, Katie Murphy moved to Fort Myers for a promising job at a major fashion retail company.
In 2020, like millions of other Americans during the pandemic, Murphy was laid off.
At this point, Murphy knew two things to be true: She needed to look for a new job. And she would probably need to move, because it was unlikely she’d find a similar job in Fort Myers.
So rather than spend money on rent in a city she could barely call home, she broke her lease, put her belongings in storage and embarked on a four-month long road trip across the country while she searched for work.
“I told myself ‘I’m going to stay out on the road until I find a new job and until I know where my next true home is going to be,’” Murphy said, now 40. “And that’s what I did.”
Reassessing amid the pandemic
For many women, the pandemic forced a reassessment of their work lives and gave them a push toward something new. For Murphy, that meant changing her physical environment and developing her appreciation of the natural world.
Despite her lack of camping experience as an adult, Murphy did some basic research and, with just a general map of the first month of her travels, she took off.
“I didn’t know what the future what going to bring. I could get a job two weeks from then, or I could get a job two years from then,” Murphy said. “After the first month, I just kind of took it week by week.”
From Fort Myers, Murphy drove north to New York, then west to California. She saw sights that most of us just marvel at on our phones or computers.
“Mind-blowingly beautiful, this country,” she said. “There’s nothing that compares to actually seeing it person and feeling that sun on your face. To touch those rocks with your own fingertips. To have those conversations with other people on the camp grounds.”
But she kept up the job search, too. Once a week, Murphy had “an office day” to apply for jobs, respond to emails and check her finances. And it was in Page, Arizona, that Murphy got a call.
It was the Alliance for Florida’s National Parks calling to discuss her job application. She told the recruiter the truth about her situation. “I told him ‘I’m here in Page, Arizona, in 24 hours I’m going to be in a different town. I’m on the move, ‘” Murphy said.
A few days later, in Salt Lake City, she received a job offer from the Alliance — but she would need to be back in Miami within 10 days. She wasn’t ready to end her trip. She said no.
She told them that she’d met a man in Indiana who talked to her about how he’d always wanted to live in Kentucky but hadn’t ended up there. She didn’t want to live with that kind of regret by ending her trip too soon.
In her note to the Alliance, she wrote: “Everyone has their Kentuckys. Everybody has these things that they wish they had done that they should have done and they kind of just let time go. And I don’t want to let time go. I don’t want this trip to be my Kentucky.”
The Alliance said they could wait a bit longer. She accepted the job.
In the end, Murphy did end up saving money on her trip, she said. And it gave her perspective on what she wants from future employers. She said people need time outside of work to fulfill their own needs — mentally and physically.
“Employers need to go beyond work-life balance and really focus on nurturing the humanity of their employees,” Murphy said. “There’s a lot of companies out there that talk the talk when it comes to work life balance but don’t walk the walk.”
Though Murphy is happy in her job in Miami, she still thinks about those magical moments on the road. She has no regrets. And when you ask her how far she got before turning back, she has this answer: “Girl, I made it the whole way.”
This story was originally published September 11, 2021 at 9:00 AM.
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