Two weeks ago, I resigned from my nursing career. I had talked about doing this for years. It wasn’t a move made without much thought and many conversations. Yet I was never going to take the leap if I kept thinking and talking about it. Words were never going to make it sound like the right move to make. Who leaves a stable job with great benefits to write words, snap photographs, and rock sweet grand-babies?
What if I told you my dreams made me do it?
You begin life with big dreams. There’s no voice of doubt drowning out the soundtrack. The neon lights in your mind aren’t dimmed by a long to-do list in your hand. The lessons of life aren’t lessening the confidence that you will be a big star. Then life becomes busy with career, children, and the daily chores of reality. You don’t have time to think about what you would like to do or who you really want to be. Dreams get side-tracked while you perform in the role society gives you. Life is so very busy for so very long.
Children grow up. It’s hard to imagine when you’re in the midst of bottles, diapers, preschool pick-up, grade school science projects, and high school sports. Then it’s just there. The end of life as you’ve known it. The busy becomes quiet. The house becomes still. There’s just a murmur of life left. What is that murmur coming from the edges of your mind? It’s not loud enough to understand it. It can be a bit annoying as you try to figure out what it is. A voice, perhaps? As you sit in the quiet stillness of this stage of life, you will begin to understand the small voice of those dreams you tucked so far away. Listen long enough and you’ll begin to remember who you wanted to be.
Be careful, though. Listening to your dream may lead you to question the choices you make every day. Are those things that swallow your time and energy necessary? If you let go, what are the possibilities? What would life be like if you allowed yourself to make the transition from who you’ve been to who you want to be? Or, doing what you want to do?
Who leaves a stable job with great benefits? If it’s to pursue your dream, I hope you do.