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Posted on May 5, 2012

Soooo… I quit my job

Yesterday marked one week since my last day at work.

You may have noticed things have been a bit quiet around here, postings a tad sporadic. Well, my friends there has been much ado behind the scenes screen.

My hard-working husband will be finishing up his PhD this summer, and while there are a great number of unknowns right now, here’s what we do know:

1) We will be moving from State College. No definites about when or where yet but that leads us into number two…

2) We will be selling our house. This would be scarier if we hadn’t been through this before. We sold our first home in Raleigh on our own and other than some setbacks with the closing date and dealing with some nutty potential buyers, it worked out. We were fortunate to learn quite a bit from that experience that will hopefully come in handy this time around. Home improvement projects, get ready.

3) The position I held was stressful, there’s no dancing around that fact. Finishing up a PhD –> undoubtedly stressful for the husband. Throw in items 1 and 2, and there was a pretty ginormous stress ball rolling around the house, threatening to consume all in its path. A little too dramatic? Well, I’ll dial it back but I can say that in a really short period of time, stress reached threat level midnight (the office, anyone?) and it was clear that something had to give.

See, we’ve been down this road before, sort of.

When I was finishing up my master’s, Andrew was preparing for his comprehensive exams. In short, it sucked. Big time. FYI:You don’t meet too many married couples that go to graduate school at the same time. It’s rough. And it was definitely rough on us. Things were kind of dark there for awhile but we made it through.

Recently, though, we started traveling down that path again, and rather than see how long each of us could endure the strain, we put the brakes on. The single biggest stressor in my life was my job. While I was (and still am) passionate about the goals and ideals of the agency I worked for, the realities of the work itself were very trying. Toss in several heaping piles of paperwork with extra helpings of meetings, phone calls and events. Stir in a sense of needed-to-be-done-yesterday-urgency and voila! stressful job.

It was clear that subtracting this huge stressor would help balance the load on our shoulders. Fortunately, we’ve been frugal and have built up our savings, making the choice to leave possible. Without having that bit of financial freedom, I’m really not sure how we would have fared.

So. There you have it. I am that person who quit her job in this economy.

May not look too practical or brilliant on paper. But I know it’s absolutely the right choice in my heart.

Don’t go thinking I’m sitting around eating bon-bons. Sidetrack – does anyone actually do this? I’m not even sure what bon-bons look like. Need to google it.

I’ll have my hands full with items 1 and 2 listed above, along with some academic loose-ends I’d like to tie up before leaving Happy Valley and an as yet undisclosed project in the works. More on that later. Add to the mix tending the garden, working on Wally’s manners (barking everytime a leaf falls or a fly poots has got.to.stop), reclaiming the physical fitness that slipped out the window with a desk job, and devoting more time and attention to developing kick-ass recipes….and I’ve got a wonderfully full and beautiful time ahead of me. The dogs, particularly Wally, are quite enthusiastic and supportive about this new arrangement.

I’m both scared and excited for what our very uncertain future holds. Not yet knowing where we’re moving or how quickly we’ll be leaving is slightly terrifying for my must-plan-everything nature.

But at the end of the day, an adventure is coming –  and I can’t wait to see what it is.

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