August 9, 2016.
I still remember that day vividly. It was one of my first days back from Indonesia. A trip I had taken to create a video for a local business that was being funded from the US. I spend 10 days there, making YouTube videos as well as filming for the bigger project. Now I was back, in Birmingham, going back to the same office I had been going to for almost a year. Same job, same place, same people. Every day.
I knew I couldn’t handle it. The job was interesting and fun. The people were fantastic and I loved working with them. I had a comfortable office to myself with a big floor to ceiling window, and a salary higher than I knew what to do with. But I couldn’t handle it. I didn’t want the daily 9-5. The work was right along the lines of what I’d spent so much of my life doing, but it wasn’t rewarding for me anymore. I needed to find something new. I needed to find something else to work towards. I was getting too comfortable, so it was time to get uncomfortable.
That day, August 9, 2016, was the day that I was sitting in a team meeting and announced suddenly (to the others as well as to myself) that I would be leaving that job. I offered to stay on for a bit part time to help them transition to someone else, but by the end of the month I would no longer come to the office every day.
I remember the feeling I had when I walked out of the office that day and got into my Subaru for the short drive home. Sure, it wasn’t my last full time day, but that’s the moment that marked my next leap into the discomfort of the unknown.
I decided then, on the drive home, that I would never take another full-time job again unless I knew it was exactly what I wanted to be doing. I was no longer going to have a comfortable office job just because that’s what society told me I should be doing after graduating college. I knew things wouldn’t be easy, I knew it would be stressful at times, but I felt at peace. I knew I was going in the right direction.
So, I got it permanently marked on me. No turning back, only go forward. A short, simple, minimalistic reminder that I chose this life no matter what came at me. I could only move forward.