Walking to New Orleans: the ultimate mobile office

In May 2007, I completed a 3,100-mile walk from New York to Los Angeles to raise money for cancer research. I did this in memory of my wife, who had recently died of colon cancer at a young age.

Along the way, I had plenty of time to think about life in general, and translating in particular. I took my laptop and kept working, and most of my customers stuck with me – often, they didn’t know whether I was crossing the Arizona desert and worrying about my dwindling water supply, or lazing beside a hotel pool.

I now live in New Orleans, and the time during and since my walk has given me a whole new perspective on my profession and my work-life balance. This presentation will partly be an armchair travelogue, but I hope it will also make you think about the almost unique degree of flexibility and mobility we enjoy in this job.

Link to paper (PPT - 13MB)