Making a Career Change

A woman makes a switch in careers:

"We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us."

That's what is taped to Debra's laptop; it's a quote from the late Joseph Campbell, a writer and professor at Sarah Lawrence College. They're the words she lives by these days.
For six months, she debated this decision with friends and family. Some support her; some criticize her for throwing away a job, an income and a lifestyle that would be the envy of so many.

Debra was also torn. Part of her feels a sense of liberation at facing a blank canvas on which to redraw her life. Part of her is overwhelmed at realizing she may no longer have the income to live the life she knows -- including being able to travel and dine and play in the places she and her friends typically do. Part of her is scared at having to leave the person she has come to be.

"I had a meltdown on Sunday night," she told me. "I don't know if I have the confidence to do this, to wake up without a plan, to know that my friendships will change. To worry about the finances and what I can't afford, when I buy now without thinking about it. I'm still living like my paycheck will still be coming in, and I'm not sure when it will hit me that it's not. My boyfriend has been supportive, but I've been financially independent and I worry he might think I see him as a sugar daddy now. Basically, I don't know if I'm going to live up to my expectations."

Read the rest here.