Member-only story
I Quit a Six-Figure Job to Focus on Writing
Childhood me is proud. Adult me is excited and nervous.
I quit a six-figure job last week to focus on writing. To write a book. To give life to an idea that has been banging around in my head for months now. Are you considering a similar leap and wondering what it feels like? Well, it’s exciting and refreshing, with a heady brew of mixed feelings and trepidation. I’m gulping it all down these days.
If you’re thinking about doing something similar, you’re not alone. People are quitting their jobs left and right, to switch careers and pursue passion projects. Or to switch to a better role with more impact (or more money). The name of the game is change.
The New York Times called it the YOLO economy:
Something strange is happening to the exhausted, type-A millennial workers of America. After a year spent hunched over their MacBooks, enduring back-to-back Zooms in between sourdough loaves and Peloton rides, they are flipping the carefully arranged chessboards of their lives and deciding to risk it all.
This is me. This is me walking away from a stable, cushy job in ed-tech where I could wait out the next few years of working-while-parenting like a cozy cave protected from the elements. Instead I’m jumping out of the cave and free-climbing down a rock wall.
How does it feel?
I feel bold and untethered. I feel like childhood me would be proud of grown-up me, something I haven’t always felt. After all, who wants to explain to their childhood self that a good day in the professional world means a well-facilitated meeting and not too many emails?
Want to read this story later? Save it in Journal.
I love that my time will be my own, and not feel stolen from either my job or my family when I sit down to write.
I can’t wait to have the space in my own head to cultivate creative ideas, and hours in front of a computer to explore them. No more meetings, no deluge of emails.
I’m excited for my characters to come to life. I see glimpses of them all the time and I know that they are waiting for me to give them breath and succor.
