It's already been six months since I left a good job at a software development company with no real idea of what I was going to do next, and lately I've been reflecting on what has happened in that time and what may come. As I've matured (what I really mean is as I've gotten older, I still have the mind of a 15 year old) I've gotten pretty comfortable in "listening to my gut", and six months ago my gut was telling me to move on if I wanted to find happiness again. I knew deep down that if I didn't introduced some risk into my life then I would have languished in the same position, unchanged and unhappy. Leaving my job was the push I needed to start figuring out what the next phase of my life was going to be like. Necessity is the mother of invention!
Of course I was very fortunate to be in a position where it was possible to make such a decision, and extremely lucky to have a partner who trusted me enough to let me do it. That I had her full support was a huge weight lifted off my mind, and it made me even more committed to insuring that I worked things out. I also knew that I could have fairly easily found another good job in the same industry, but I didn't want to "waste" this opportunity. I certainly didn't want to be in the same position all over again in another couple of years, sitting at a desk in an office, staring at a computer screen, wondering.
Now I'd be lying if I said, six months down the track, I had everything figured out. However, I am very lucky to be surrounded by an amazing circle of people, and one of those stepped up and offered me an opportunity to try something completely new. It was very humbling, I know he didn't have to do it, could have very easily hired someone off the street with far more experience than me who could have 'hit the ground running', but he didn't. The fact that he did that was amazing enough, doubly so when you consider that the job he was offering was in a new venture for him also. Starting a business comes with enough risk as it is, let alone hiring some hubbard to bugger it up for you!
So for the last couple of months I have been working in hospitality, and learning a lot in the process. It feels great to be doing something completely different and hands on, and I can honestly say I enjoy going to work again. The response from people I know has also been overwhelmingly positive. When I left my previous job, I wasn't really worried about what people would think, but I did expect some to think I was being an idiot. If those people exist, they haven't said so to my face!
I can't say what the future will bring, but I am confident about it. I don't need to know all the answers at the moment, it's enough to be able to say that six months on I have no regrets.
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