I Quit My Job Last Year and Here's What Happened

I quit my job last year and do you want to know what happened? It made a lot of people uncomfortable.

Why?

Well, for starters, I guess what I did was uncomfortable. Out of the norm. Kind of bold.

You might be one of those people that have been curiously wondering “Why would she do that?” Heck, you might be one of those naysayers. Or maybe you are just curiously involved in wanting to know what kind of guts it took to leave a secure job to pursue a greater passion. If so, I’m happy you’re here because I think it’s time I share that. And if you really don’t care about that part, but you still think I’m a little crazy for doing what I did, I’m glad you’re here too.

One year ago I was just days before resigning from my two and a half year teaching job at age 25. It’s actually still a little scary to type that out in sentence form. Truthfully, I don’t always feel that brave. 

Why did I do this? Well, to your surprise, it really had little to do with teaching. Ok - it had some to do with it, but that really wasn’t what sent me spiraling forward into an unknown. 

It was October 2019. I had just started my second full year as a seventh grade Language Arts Teacher and I was a part of an incredible seventh grade team. My team Language Arts teacher was one-of-a-kind. I mean seriously, you don’t find those kinds of human beings just anywhere. I couldn’t have asked for a better setup. What I had was good. 

Yet it still wasn’t enough. 

I remember that day in October like it was yesterday. I was sitting at my desk. It was my planning. I was meeting with our seventh grade Language Arts academic coach and I remember telling her that I just wasn’t “feeling fed.” That I felt like there was more. That I was either wanting to go back to school. Pursue writing a little more. Take a different direction. I remember telling her how stuck I felt. That all of the “you’re a great teacher” statements in the world just couldn’t fill that void. 

Actually not feeling fed doesn’t even come close to describing it. I was starving. 

Truthfully, I felt like I wasn’t using my talents. Ok so maybe I was decent at teaching, writing, mentoring, and all of the above. Maybe I did have a gift in teaching others, but at my core, there was something missing. I don’t mean that in vain. What I mean is on that day in October, there was absolutely no denying that something big was stirring inside of me. And again, it had nothing to do with teaching.

And then I recall what I have since recalled so many times. My coach said this. 

She recounted having felt the same way - stuck - in a previous position. One that she, at the time, thought was something she really wanted. Yet, she stuck it out, as she also encouraged me to do. I remember her words that day just like she was speaking them to me now.

“Sometimes we know there’s a change coming, but we have to stick it out where we are. We have to stay the course and finish learning what we need to learn now.” 

That was so empowering and I’ve thought about it almost daily since. How much courage it took to do that. How I had no choice but to stay the course then. That on that day in October, there was nothing I could do but dig in deep, buckle my bootstraps, and hang on. I did that even though it was miserable at times. Oh boy, it was downright ugly at times. There were days I wasn’t sure I could make it to work. Actually there were a couple of days I didn’t, but I stayed the course. 

I did what I had to do and I left the rest up to the Lord. 

Backtrack to when I said little of this had to do with teaching. That’s honest. What I was feeling was the Holy Spirit leading me to a greater calling and very little of that had to do with the teaching job itself. 

The calling grew and grew month after month the rest of that school year. Now mind you, I had no clue what direction I was heading in, but I knew I was being called into a different direction. It would take about 8 more months to figure that out. That’s quite a long time to hang out in the trenches. 

I’m not telling you today to pack up and leave your job. What I am saying is that you can’t doubt the Holy Spirit. In the midst of what felt like one of the deepest trenches of my life, I dug in deep and held on and finally when it was time, I left. 

I left behind starving and pursued nourishment. If you don’t take anything else away from this, please understand this: You are not stuck. 

I know. I get it. Certain circumstances and situations restrain us. They keep us contained in certain places and we get comfortable and used to that scenery. Sometimes we even take up and build property there. We begin to feel invested. So invested that packing up and moving seems unfathomable. I get that. 

But don’t feed yourself that lie. Society fed me that lie and even when I got up the courage to pack up and leave, society mocked me at what felt like every single turn.

Why would you do that?

What about your benefits?

Are you crazy?

Good thing you got out while you still can. 

Are you sure this is what you want?

Are you happy?

Are you still glad you made a career change?

So did you buy into the current business you work for?

Me leaving a secure, by-the-book job made so many people in my outer circles uncomfortable that at times I think it may have kept them awake more at night than it did me. 

I think there’s something wrong with this way of thinking. We are taught that we will get an education and find a great job that will take care of us for the rest of our lives and honestly, that’s way too comfortable for me. This very way of thinking almost starved me.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with a job that does that. Understand, I am not discrediting that, but if said job, opportunity, experience, or whatever it might be isn’t nourishing you then you have absolutely every right to change that. You owe that much to yourself.

You can do this. You can change your circumstances. Society will mock you because it will make them uncomfortable. Let them poke fun. The only way we move forward, the only way we can change ways of thinking, is by feeling insecure. By stepping out into an unknown and letting that very feeling guide what happens next.

You’ll make it. I did.

Be brave. Be bold.