I Quit!

12/1/2017 12:00:00 AM

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If anyone has ever wondered, "Should I quit my job?",then I understand. I wanted to quit for many years but I just wasn't ready. There are many reasons people stay on. Mine were:

• 15 minute commute!
• 5 weeks of vacation!
• Paycheck!
• Sense of security
• The people - how could I leave the folks that depended on me?
• It was comfortable. I knew pretty much what to expect.

Unfortunately, I didn't like my job though. I was doing something I had done for many years and I wanted to expand my horizons. Learn something new. Something challenging. Something exciting. So, that lead me to my decision. I needed to quit.

But how could I do it? I didn't have enough skills in something else to get a job. Heck, even my company only wanted me for one job. They had no desire to train me in something else, even if I was an awesome employee and there were open positions in the company that I could have filled (they wanted somebody with experience). What to do? I started looking for classes to take, but couldn't really find anything. Nothing seemed to fit what I wanted. Then one day I received an email from some guy named Jeff who ran a local user group. He was reminding me of the next meetup, and at the very bottom of the email was a note saying new classes were starting for a coding bootcamp. What? Really?!? I think this is what I want to do!

But, at the time things seemed to be improving a little at work. We were getting more organized and I was assigned as the lead on a pretty important project. Maybe I should just hang on and give it a chance. Maybe things will work out. I worked my tail off on that project - even worked weekends and successfully implemented it. I must say I did an excellent job. No complaints from the users. Then the next project came, and I was back to where I was before. I didn't want to be doing what I was doing. I needed out.

So, I did it. I quit. It was terrifying. Saying to my boss that I was leaving was one of the harder things I have had to do. I was worried that everyone would be angry with me. But they weren't. They were so supportive and excited about me going to school (and I think maybe a little envious). What a relief!

Now I am in class writing a blog post for an assignment. I am on the path to finally doing what I want to do. Yay!