Three times in my life, I started over. The fact that I got to three is a miracle. Because my whole life, I hated change. I ran from it. I hid from it. When I lived in Michigan, I stayed in the same crappy half-basement studio apartment the entire six years I lived there. Because my mother and I moved so many times when I was in high school, I grew to loathe moving. Cardboard boxes were my constant and unwanted companions.
Thanks for sharing your story! I've started over a few times too, but never in as dramatic a way as you! It has usually felt good, in my case.
When I was in my twenties I did a lot of work to get into book publishing, which began by moving from DC to San Francisco. I'd been working for the federal government in DC, so I was able to easily get a similar job out here while I figured out the publishing thing. Eventually, I got a job at a law book publisher and then to set myself up as a freelance editor and proofreader, which led to a job at HarperCollins. It felt good to manage to achieve that goal. After being laid off from that job (thanks, Rupert Murdoch!) I got into tech, but that kind of happened to me rather than being an active choice I sought out, so it didn't feel like I was starting over.
What was meant to be a brief stint in tech turned into 14 and a half years. In the last couple years of that I learned everything I could to make a career change into clean energy, which I managed to do. Also felt good, though I was earning a lot less money! (Still am.)
The latest change was leaving a job with nothing lined up and becoming a consultant. Scary! But it has worked out, so far. Definitely resonate with "don’t stay in a job or career path that drains you"! And I am still figuring it all out and probably always will be.
I can so relate to what you said, Adam. Life took some crappy turns for me, too, and I put everything in a storage unit about five years ago and then drove solo to Key West and back to get over those crappy things (it didn't work) and how I had wasted my life and done everything wrong. I came back homeless, but a great old friend in Ann Arbor let me stay with her for what was supposed to be two months but turned in to two years. Today I'm happier than I ever expected to be at 62. And it's not because of a big, high-paying job. I eek by. What do I do for work? I'm a geriatric hustler. I help run estate sales, sell weird stuff at a small store in an antique mall, do eBay and Facebook Marketplace, dog sit and any other stress free form of employment under the table. I also got incredibly lucky and found a group of friends here like I never had in my life. Despite a journalism career that showed me more of the world than any other job could, recently I've wondered if I'd skipped it all and just opened a store -- not a boring one, but kind of a bipolar Spencer Gifts -- if life would have been happier. Would love to talk to you on the phone sometime. Message me your phone!
Thanks for sharing your story! I've started over a few times too, but never in as dramatic a way as you! It has usually felt good, in my case.
When I was in my twenties I did a lot of work to get into book publishing, which began by moving from DC to San Francisco. I'd been working for the federal government in DC, so I was able to easily get a similar job out here while I figured out the publishing thing. Eventually, I got a job at a law book publisher and then to set myself up as a freelance editor and proofreader, which led to a job at HarperCollins. It felt good to manage to achieve that goal. After being laid off from that job (thanks, Rupert Murdoch!) I got into tech, but that kind of happened to me rather than being an active choice I sought out, so it didn't feel like I was starting over.
What was meant to be a brief stint in tech turned into 14 and a half years. In the last couple years of that I learned everything I could to make a career change into clean energy, which I managed to do. Also felt good, though I was earning a lot less money! (Still am.)
The latest change was leaving a job with nothing lined up and becoming a consultant. Scary! But it has worked out, so far. Definitely resonate with "don’t stay in a job or career path that drains you"! And I am still figuring it all out and probably always will be.
I can so relate to what you said, Adam. Life took some crappy turns for me, too, and I put everything in a storage unit about five years ago and then drove solo to Key West and back to get over those crappy things (it didn't work) and how I had wasted my life and done everything wrong. I came back homeless, but a great old friend in Ann Arbor let me stay with her for what was supposed to be two months but turned in to two years. Today I'm happier than I ever expected to be at 62. And it's not because of a big, high-paying job. I eek by. What do I do for work? I'm a geriatric hustler. I help run estate sales, sell weird stuff at a small store in an antique mall, do eBay and Facebook Marketplace, dog sit and any other stress free form of employment under the table. I also got incredibly lucky and found a group of friends here like I never had in my life. Despite a journalism career that showed me more of the world than any other job could, recently I've wondered if I'd skipped it all and just opened a store -- not a boring one, but kind of a bipolar Spencer Gifts -- if life would have been happier. Would love to talk to you on the phone sometime. Message me your phone!
Here are my favorite nuggets of your wisdom shared in this post:
"Definitely don’t stay in a job or career path that drains you. Life is way too short for that."
and
"I know that we only have so many chances to change our lives. Turning away from those chances because we are scared is such a waste."
Thank you for these reminders, Adam!
All of this brings to my mind a Holly Near song called "I Am Willing." The chorus goes like this:
"I am open and I am willing
To be hopeless would seem so strange
It dishonors those who go before us
So lift me up to the light of change"
Here we go! Up, up, and away!