the day I quit my job

You have been there. You are working the job and something is not right. You are talented. Just not at the work you are doing. You apply yourself. Just not in the cubicle.

I was a highly competent, highly educated, extremely ambitious and energetic young woman doing all the wrong work. I was miserable at most of my job duties. It took an immense amount of personal introspection and honesty to realize that for the first time in my life, I failed something I thought I would master. I needed to leave, not just for my sanity’s sake but also for the company’s sake.

The day I quit my job, I was a royal mess. I sat at my cubicle, sweating out every moment as each click clack of heels down the corridor set me on edge. I planned to turn in my letter at the end of the day, but this lead to an excrutiatingly long day of worries and frequent trips to the bathroom. As I handed in my letter, I did my best not to cry. I was about to leave my first job out of college and an organization I had esteemed for years. It was bittersweet, but I knew I was not in the right place.

After I quit my job, I worked at Starbucks and substitute taught for four months. I was pathetically poor and slept on an air mattress, but I spent a great amount of time figuring out what my purpose was making time to explore my creativity. I never felt so alive.

I was blessed enough to have been able to indulge myself in a Creative Escape before the economy took a nosedive. However, I would do it again if I knew it was going to bring me the rejuvenation and direction I need. You and I will work for the rest of our lives. If you have the chance, take some time off inbetween jobs to make sure you are doing what you feel purposed to do. The work will always be there. What’s the rush? Feeling confident in your next career adventure will lead to greater satisfaction and perhaps, a longer stay with the next company. Or perhaps you’ll discover you are not meant to work for someone else. Mark Zuckerberg, the young founder of Facebook, did not decide that working for Microsoft was his life goal. If you took the time to reflect on what you really love to do, and somehow finagle that into a job, you would be happy. There would be no job to regret. There would be no good reason to hit the snooze button four times. We need to find the work where we bound out of bed every morning. If you find it, let me know. Maybe in a year or two, we’ll be working for you.

*Grace