Residency
So I somewhat unexpectedly decided to quit my job. There were reasons, but it was also great in many ways. Part of me thinks I'm crazy, but part of me knows I need to heal. All of me feels like life is meant to be lived, and even on the best of days I kept asking myself when it would be my tech-xit.
Thanks to previous startup lottery ticket (ie early shares that actually worked out) I own my house. I have a healthy retirement, and enough money outside retirement that I could sustain myself for 3 years at a not meagre but also not luxurious lifestyle here in much-cheaper-than-San Francisco Tucson, AZ.
My last day was March 1. I have declared this my self-funded residency. There are so many creative projects that have been bouncing around my head, buried beneath the demands of full time employment and motherhood. I am steadfastly trying to ignore the anxiety inducing internet threads: tech employment is going away! you will never be hired again once you're in your 40's! everyone's trying and failing to make a hustle work! Fuck em.
To be clear, this isn't truly a tech exit. It's the thing I know best, and (like what they say about democracy) it's the best worst option to make money.
But in the meantime, I'm going to take a course on restaurant branding and one on metal smithing. I'm continuing to learn everything I can about sustainable landscapes, water usage in the southwest, and cultivating native plants. I'm learning pickleball, and reading EVEN MORE than previously - everything from graphic novels to academic papers to whatever is recommended this week.
Here's the projects that I've always wanted to do, or want to do now, or have been playing with in my spare time that I'm now working on:
Laser cutter to create plant labels:
Graphic novel about rainwater harvesting:
Trying out resin casting on some of my weird-o 3d character sculptures:
Marrying my love of geometric shapes and hand drawn typography into incredibly amateurish but deeply enjoyable painting
I'm also trying to not get too bogged down in producing things to not take time out of the day to go see classic films during a matinee, or hanging out with my children.
Where will it go? Who knows, but I'm hoping to not be trying to get any FTE employment until September, though I imagine I might take freelance work opportunistically. Wish me luck or follow along.