Happiness is Underrated

Happiness is underrated.  And no, I'm not talking about the album by Johnny Headband.  

Last week I handed in my resignation at a company that I've been with for (gasp) a whole decade.  At my age that's about a third of my entire life.  This was my first job out of university and the place where I spent years working on space robots, literally.  This job is where I first put engineering principles to practice; it's what got me into the flight control room in Houston.  While working here I built my closest friendships, purchased my first home, became a bride and then a mother.

Over the past few years however I've become increasingly distracted by my other interests; there are other activities I'd more readily throw myself into given the time and energy.  I have always managed to successfully talk myself out of seriously pursuing those other interests with reasoning, logic, the guilt that naturally comes with being a daughter to first-generation immigrant parents who turned their hard life into a good life through hard work and nothing else.  

Ever since I started getting into a "routine" during my maternity leave, and certainly since I've returned back to work,  I've taken a new perspective on life (pardon the cliché).  Happiness is underrated.  

There are many reasons why it makes sense to stay in the job I'm in. It's a well-respected profession; it pays well; it offers flexibility; I know the ropes.  But I'll argue there are even better reasons to try something new, and not just something new but something I know I'll love.  I will absolutely love spending more time with my family and not just watching Adam grow up with his cousin but participating in that experience.  In parallel I will absolutely love working with my hands, creating beautiful things, obsessing about the details about how to create those beautiful things.  I will absolutely learn invaluable lessons from working towards starting my own business, however direct or indirect that route is.  

And I am exceedingly grateful that I have the opportunity to take on this exciting endeavor because I know full well that not everyone can afford to quit their job.  I don't know for how long I'll be away from engineering.  Let's just say it's an indefinite break.   

Thank you to everyone who is cheering me on.  Your support has made all the difference.