The Big Quit

Quitting My Job and What Comes Next

I was giddy with excitement on the first day of my latest job, in August of 2021. I didn’t know the Texas sun so well at the time, having just moved here a few months before. As it streamed through my window, I beamed brightly along with it.

Cracking open my laptop for the first time, I smiled at the new hire package on my desk. Inside, there was a custom Lego-dude, with the company logo on the front of his shirt and my name printed on the back. He sat upon a platform with a brick embossed with my hire date. I loved it.

Over the course of the next two years, I sharpened and expanded my craft, contributed to impactful projects, and met wonderful people. In short, I had a great time. My manager was probably one of the best managers I’ve had. I felt valued, and was compensated accordingly. There were good projects and challenging ones, but overall, I’ve treasured my time at Litmus.

So all of this leads to the question…

Why Quit?

My practical answer is that after we get married, Jackie and I are going on sabbatical and traveling abroad for an extended period of time.

Behind my practical answer, there’s been a subtle but profound shift in my attitude toward employment itself. I’ve come to view employment as seasonal, by its very nature. We don’t work forever. And we no longer live in a world where people stay at the same companies forever.

In certain seasons of life, employment is fruitful and illuminating.
In other seasons of life, employment constrains life’s richness.

It’s commonplace to hold very concrete opinions about full-time employment. Some scoff at those who try to make it on their own. Taking risks can be irresponsible. Others scoff at the handcuffs of a life that revolves around employment and days of PTO (paid time off).

What about a take that’s somewhere in between?

Seasons of “Work”

As much as it tends to be a logistical discussion, employment is a deeply sensitive and emotional topic. There’s a bevy of attitudes, beliefs, and scripts that we hold about employment. Money is a source of security, anxiety, and hope. And employment is a main character in most money stories.

When employed, I’ve experienced moments of questioning what I was doing, feeling burned out, living for weekends, and pining for elusive moments of creative freedom.

I’ve also experienced the scarcity of not having a job, the desire for stability, and the gleeful gratitude of a paycheck hitting my bank account.

The emotions and practicalities that swirl around our life’s work is tangled with work scripts that we’ve adopted over the course of years. The key to their unraveling is in identifying the season of life we’re in.

Is our heart leading us to a place that’s in alignment with our mind?

Right now, I’m quitting for a pathless adventure, a sabbatical for an unspecified length of time. I’m quitting because I have accepted an invitation to explore the world, and by extension, explore myself. It’s an invitation that almost certainly would expire.

What’s Next

I feel as though I’m standing on the bow of a ship at dawn. In the distance, on the lips of the horizon, I can make out a faint line of land. Behind it, the sun rises to greet a cloudless sky.

In the short term, my eyes are on that sliver of land. It’s in view, and I know what happens before I get there:

• I’m getting married a few days from when this posts 🥳

• At the end of the month, we’re heading to Asia to begin our sabbatical 🌏

I’ll be writing lots more about the wedding, the adventure, work, and their intersection in the coming weeks! Stay tuned. 👀