I got to meet up with one of my friends from work over the weekend before she left Tucson. She was returning from going on unpaid leave for 3 months. We hung out at a local coffee shop and had an amazing conversation about her time off. She backpacked through some parts of Seattle and the Dakotas. She did a road trip from Colorado to the Dakotas. She visited friends in NorCal. It honestly sounded like taking unpaid leave was something I needed to do because I needed to take a long break. I have PTO, but the thing with PTO is that it doesn’t last for 3 months; I only have enough PTO for 3 weeks. She told me that taking the long break helped her well being and the financial hit was worth it.
As a small fun fact, I was the one who initially brought up the idea of going part time. Now she’s the one convincing me to go unpaid. I liked the way she described her experience between the two situations: going part time is like slowly taking off a band aid from a wound while going unpaid was just ripping the band aid off quickly to get to the wound and treat. In this case, the wound is the work and life stress. I’ll talk about my thoughts about going unpaid in another blog.
Unexpected unease
When we started talking about her plans for leaving Tucson, she mentioned how unsure she was feeling about leaving Tucson. I was pretty surprised by this because we had talked about our own plans for leaving Tucson for over a year and it was finally coming to fruition for her. She said she was excited about the new opportunity and place she was going to. Things were getting better for her own personal life outside of work. So I thought – what was this unease she mentioned?
Her unease came from the fact that she wasn’t sure things would stay better once going back to work full time. Work contributed to a significant amount of stress, which exacerbated the other stresses she faced outside of work. Everybody has their own baggage they carry with them wherever they go. It doesn’t just magically disappear when you move somewhere else. It’s a lot easier to avoid them then to address them. There was a point in my job search where I believed that finding a new job and moving to a new city would make me a new person. It doesn’t. I admit that there are still some of my own baggage that I’m dealing with after moving away from Michigan.
I think moving to a new place or trying a new job is a really good thing. A new environment can offer new experiences. New experiences can offer new perspectives, and new perspectives can help you see why you struggle with certain issues in life.
I hope this will serve as a reminder for you too!
As always,
Be Confident. Stay Curious.
