Well, maybe I will try to write interesting stuff in here more after all. Let’s see…
Well, I’ve had a fun lesson recently in practicing what you preach. I always tell students I work with that are worried about the future and their careers that they need to follow their passion. Life is too short to spend more of it miserable than you have to.
So when I realized recently that this job in Arizona wasn’t really my thing - and neither was being far away from my partner and friends/family, and neither was being in a state that’s stopped even pretending to not be racist - it was time to put my money where my mouth is. Do I head back home to an uncertain job market or stay where I have a safe income but spend way more of my time unhappy than I wanted to?
Well, I made the choice to come home. My contract was through the end of June anyway, so I just made the choice to not renew it (it’s kind of a nice feeling, having been on the other end of that scenario several times now).
Did I make the right decision? I question it every day - could I have made myself happy here? The answer is yes - happiness comes from within ultimately, and if I had managed to change my attitude enough, I could have hung in there. Could have built up a better support group, found ways to cope, things to enjoy about where I am, reframe the negative into a positive, all that stuff.
But…I had the opportunity to go back somewhere where I can invest my energy into love and into being happy, rather than investing it all into not being miserable. Not everyone has that opportunity - it’s so easy to get stuck into a situation you can’t get out of. I felt I owed it to myself to put into practice the kind of philosophy I had always espoused.
So now it’s time to hit the California job market again - and it better watch out because I’m going to rock it’s world! :)
