t’s been 18 months since I quit a good solid 24 year career in IT. When my kids were little James and I had the long talk about our future. He worked a commission based job and mine was a steady paycheck. We always knew we wanted one of us home with the kids and we decided the best option for our little family was to invest in my career, so that’s what we did. He became the stay-at-home parent and I worked hard to support us. Sure there were times when things were tight, but we made it through anything life could throw our way.
When I came to him about two years and confessed I was ready to work towards making the transition away from a traditional job to write full time, it was scary. Writing is definitely not the steady paycheck every two weeks we were used to. It pays once a month and is fluid often by thousands of dollars month to month. But I had spent three years building up a solid writing career and working two full time jobs during that period was killing me. It affected my health, my time with my family, my friends, everything. It was a sacrifice that in hindsight I’d absolutely do again!
Shortly after I resigned from my last ever IT job, my mother-in-law who had been battling stage 4 lung cancer took a turn for the worst. She was only with us four more months, but I was able to be home with my family during that time. Exactly where I needed to be.
Through this Covid period, I’ve mostly kept up with my writing schedule with the exception of one book I’m still behind on in Armstrong Academy, but for the most part, we’ve all been together, safe and worry free as business hasn’t been affected as much as most other areas. I recognize that my previous job would have been considered essential and work as usual, but how much more stressful would that have been.
I’ve been enormously blessed to find a job that I love, only that fulfills me every day, and allows me to work for myself and be home with my family. Sometimes home is temporary in other locations, like right now “home” is a lake house on top of a mountain. For me “home” is simply wherever my family is.
Today as I sit next to the lake with a cool breeze blowing as I work on writing my latest book I’m just grateful. I know this wasn’t a position that was just handed to me. I worked my butt off to get us here, but to me it’s still a gift that I hope I never take for granted.
If you’re reading this, then you play a huge part in that gift and in my life. A lot of authors have taken time away during these last few months. I’ve certainly slowed some areas, including this blog and some social media, but I’m still here and I will always take a moment to talk if you reach out to me, because without you, I couldn’t be living my best life, a life that I couldn’t even have dreamed of until I was living it. Is it a perfect life? No. It’s not an easy one either, but it’s mine, and I love it.
When i quit to give this a shot, James and I agreed that every six months for the first two years we’d reevaluate our situation knowing beyond two years to get back into the IT world I would need to invest in some classes and upgraded certifications. Here’s to another six months passed with zero regrets and I lot more books left to write!
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