Stepping Out
posted April 4th, 2006 by George
Wow, I can’t believe that it has already been 5 weeks since I quit my job! The time does fly. Some of you may not even know about all of the big changes we are going through right now. I have been intending to post about this for some time. I wanted to wait until I was actually out of there, but then I’ve just been caught up with lots of other stuff.
I have spent the past 7 years working at a large company here in SATX. It was a good experience for me, but it had become very clear that it was time to move on. My more perceptive wife recognized this much sooner than I did, but I can be slow and stubborn at times.
So, what exactly am I doing? Well, now I’m now independent, self-employed, or maybe un-employed. I’m spending my time being with my family, writing code, and working on my house.
The current coding project is a PHP/MySQL project for a non-profit organization. I’m learning lots of new stuff, and I really enjoy the project. It’s great to work on a project that has a more meaningful outcome that will help families in need. The organization I’m working for is a great group that helps children with their neurological development. They help everyone with a wide range of neurodevelopmental issues ranging from down syndrome, autism, ADD, and much more; or fairly “normal” families like us.
The current house project is getting it ready to sell. That’s right, we’re moving. We will be moving to Fort Worth soon. How soon? Well, we get that question a lot. The answer is: it depends. Depends on how soon we can sell this house and how soon we find a new place. Since I don’t have another job (“workin for the man”) lined up, we don’t have a move date / deadline. We hope to have our current house on the market next week and moved into a new place by mid-June. The only deadline to speak of is the baby whom we expect to arrive in mid-August.
The current family project is reconnecting. Over the past few years I have been far too focused on work and career development at the expense of my family. The time I have given to my family has been largely child focused. I need time to reconnect and especially with my wonderful wife. We need to remember what it is that is most important to us and what we want our lives to look like.
We live in a time of quick fixes and 10 step programs. We want everything spelled out and simplified for us, and we’re not willing to make sacrifices even for things that are of utmost importance. We want medicine that will protect us from all disease instead of eating well and living a healthy lifestyle; we want the 10 minutes a week workout that will enable us to scarf all the donuts we want and still be in great shape; we want the simple formula from (insert popular parenting author here) to make our children respect and obey us; we want to spend our 20 minute QT (quiet time) every morning and live the rest of our lives however we want and still have a great relationship with God; we possess and consume until our houses are overflowing and then we want more. I must admit that I have fallen into many of these attitudes myself, but I’m a recovering americano-hypocondri-donutScarfin-QTskippin-consumerist with hopes of a better life. I’m learning that sometimes you must make drastic changes and sacrifices. It’s usually not easy, but it is usually worth it.
Laura’s comments: “Cool, insightful post.”
Clint’s comments: “Gnarly beard!”
We enjoyed reading your thoughts, thanks for sharing.
I enjoyed reading your post. I just want to say, “I am impressed with your love and devotion to your family, your wisdom at such a young age (30 is young to me)and your faith. We are proud of you George!