Life Until You Cry · 8:46pm Oct 16th, 2017
Get it? Instead of "laugh" until you cry? My buddy Beau accidentally texted me "Do you wanna life until you cry?" with a link to a funny video. It's immediately among my all-time favorite phrases. Anyway, I quit my job. Let's talk about that.
When my wife and I moved to her tiny hometown of Price, Utah, 10 long months ago, the plan was for me to work a steady job while she went to nursing school. Then, when she graduated after 2 or 3 years, we'd move to California and she'd make enough money as a Registered Nurse for me to pursue my wild dreams of becoming a... um... I dunno, media person. To work in TV and movies to some capacity. A writer? I don't freakin' know.
Anyway, I got a part-time job at a bank as a teller. I liked it a lot. Both of my parents had been bank tellers in their youths, so I figured maybe it'd run in the family or something poetic like that. The Customer Service Supervisor quit her job within a couple of months of me starting part-time, and I was offered her full-time position in front of other employees who had worked there longer. I dunno, I guess I'm intelligent and charming or something.
I took the job. I shouldn't have. I've been at it for a while now, and... I'm about ready to smash my head through a window. It's an excruciatingly boring position where I waste 7 hours of my day just sitting at a desk doing nothing (again, small town, small bank... old people... you get it), and then that boredom is occasionally punctuated by moments of ridiculous stress, because something goes wrong and I have to fix it, or my coworkers have absolutely no idea what they're doing, or I was never trained well so I have to repair a bunch of accounts that I apparently opened incorrectly with absolutely no warnings, or my boss yells at me for refilling the ATM on the morning I'm supposed to refill the ATM because I'm not sitting down and listening to an hour-long conference call that everyone else is already listening to so why can't they just take notes and tell me the important bits since I'm doing my job refilling the FREAKING ATM!??!
So I'm quitting. Sure, it paid well, and I had lots of downtime to write ponyfiction. But... I'm not writing ponyfiction, because I'm in a really bad place mentally and emotionally. And money doesn't matter. I'd rather work 100 hours a week for myself and make enough money to stay alive than work 40 hours a week for someone else and feel like my young life is wasting away. You can always get another job and make some money; time doesn't ever come back.
I talked to my boss and my wife and my dad about quitting and trying something crazy. They all said, "Go for it." My dad specifically said, "And don't just dip your toe in the water, jump off the cliff!" So I'm doing it.
I found a nifty job online that I'm excited about. It pays about 1/4 of what I was making at the bank, but at least I'm busy and working hard. The day goes by quickly, I feel like I'm really earning everything I make, and I type a lot, which is something I love to do. All in all, it's a good in-betweener while I work on other things. One of which is voice acting, coached by my good friend Beau (who quit his job to become a voice actor and moved to California on a whim with his wife and now makes holy shit dollars a year in Los Angeles). I'm thinking about teaching vocal lessons to local kids, too, both classical and contemporary.
And I'm also thinking about Patreon.
I'm still at the bank for two weeks, and during that time I'm putting together a ship-tight Patreon page. I want to make music again, and this is the only way I can see myself having enough time and resources to do it. I'll launch the page on November 1st, and patrons will have access to MP3s of all the songs I produce along with a number of fun little perks based on the monthly pledges.
I don't expect this to start off with a bang. It's gonna be slow going for a long time. But I am committed to staying committed, and I want to pump out two songs a month for the foreseeable future. I know I can do it, too, as long as I have the time and save up for the hardware/software. I'm very excited about the next stretch of my life, Wonderfolk, and I hope I'll see a few of you along for the ride with me.
Look for videos on my YouTube channels as November gets closer. Thank you all for supporting me in whatever ways you do. I'm grateful to you all and happy that we know each other.
To an honest and artistic future,
Ky
well my good sir best of luck to you
Truer words were never godblessed said.
4699736
Yeah, or you can throw yourself into a job you love, abuse the hell out of your body doing it, make no money and have your life dead end. Kind of like me.
But I'll be honest. I still say go for it. As much as I can't do this job much longer I also wouldn't give it up, despite the fact I could have lived a better life if I went in a different direction the memories I've formed doing it are cherished and my work life was the better for it.
Just be careful, if you aren't paying attention it can turn into a trap that you'll have a hard time escaping.
Here's hoping you get everything you need from this change, and a fair bit of what you want as well (which aren't always the same things). And that you don't get too close to the 'starving' part of "starving artist" along the way!
Good luck! We'll be rooting for you all the way!
Oh, buddy. Follow those dreams. Do what you do best. We're all here for ya! I'm so excited for you!
Best of luck, Ponky!
Glad you're in a better place, Ponks. Best wishes, and I hope things turn out great!
Best of luck to you.
If a soul is a thing one can have, money isn't worth letting it get crushed.
Do what makes you happy, and if you starve to death doing it, well, you'll have been happy, and that's more than most folks ever achieve.