(Continued from Hard Change)
Change is hard.
The one thing you never really understand the gravitas of until it body slams you down to the ground of your own ambitions is that there is struggle at every level and with every step.
I have been crossing the bridge of change for over two years as I write this having left what many would consider a cushy government job in search of something with far less bureaucracy and far more agency to do work that was (for lack of a better way to put it) morally and creatively positive. There are a thousand and one nuances to that statement and a career spanning twenty-five years stacked with as many successes as struggles, but in the end the yearning for something greater than being a cog in a machine won out.
And what I have I learned is that so few respect that struggle. Those still on solid ground almost unanimously reject the very idea of crossing a bridge to something new.
The other cogs in the machine often seem resentful.
Those yearning to have their turn in the machine are often scornful.
And the many who reject the machine itself are distrustful of anyone who ever participated in the machine at all.
I stepped out of the machine to find a purpose for the second half of my life that was far across that bridge of change, invisible on the other side, though something of which I had heard through rumours might exist. What I suspect is that the bridge itself might be so long that the crossing of it is the destination itself.
Terms FROm this POSt
- career
- I willingly stepped away from a comfortable job in 2023 to pursue something with more meaning and purpose. We live in a society that values productivity above many other things, so questioning career (that pursuit of productivity perfection and identity) is a challenging thing. I write a lot about careers and career change because it is a defining part of what I am.
- government job
- I worked in local government for over a decade before escaping. Government work is not easy, though it is often portrayed as soft. It is, instead, rigid and suffocating for anyone who seeks any kind of individuality or creative outlet. There are always exceptions, but government bureaucracies are generally meant to be the silent foundations of society not outlets for creative expression or individual elevation. Comfortable and claustrophobic.
