kkm

Have you ever felt like you weren’t doing what you were meant to do in your life? Or maybe that the path you had taken wasn’t the one your heart wanted to stay on, and you needed to find a new one? Well I did.  I felt that multiple times over my almost 20 year career.  I told myself to suck it up – that I had gone to school for a very long time, and I had put in a lot money, and I was good at what I did – but sucking it up could only last so long.  I had started to become “that person.” The one who annoyed me when I would ask them about some part of their life and they would say they weren’t happy with it, but everything was fine. Every. Time. We. Talked.  In my head I would think, “Well if you’re not happy, DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!”, while I would outwardly smile at them and nod.

So it was a life-changing moment for me a little over a year and a half ago when I ran into a friend at the gym early one morning and casually asked how things were going.  “Great”, he said, “I quit my job!”  So I asked what he was doing next.  My jaw dropped when he said he wasn’t sure yet, but he was giving himself the time to figure it out.  When I got home I couldn’t stop thinking about him leaving a seemingly great career so he could figure out what was next.  I wanted to do something different and creative, but didn’t know how, or what for that matter.  I immediately texted him and set up a date to have a drink and chat.  When we met later that week he told me I was not alone; that there are many people just like us out there that find themselves in unfulfilling careers. It’s just a matter of if you’re brave enough to do something about it.  He gave me multiple books to read and podcasts to listen to.  He had even hired a life-coach, and without realizing it, he unofficially became mine.

That’s when my soul-searching finally began – I read and listened and talked to people in creative careers that I admired (all while continuing sessions with my therapist whom I’ve seen on and off for almost 15 years).  I continued this until I was ready to put it out into the universe.  At the end of 2017 I decided that 2018 would be my last year as a dentist.  I gave a year’s notice…

So here I am.  I decided to start a blog at the beginning of 2019, so for being a perfectionist (aka procrastinator) starting in mid-May seems about right.  Why?  Well, because I had to research how to blog, what platform to use, and basically over-think everything.  Finally, I ended up teaching myself to build a website with the help of Google and YouTube, and for being someone who could confidently call herself computer illiterate only 4 months ago, I must say I’ve come a long way.  But as I learned in one of my many self-help books – no one is perfect, just put yourself out there. (That’s actually enough content for a whole other post.)

I am proud to say I finally did it!  I blogged.  And I will continue to do so, as will I continue to work on my website which is far from completion.  My incredibly understanding husband and I have been DINKs (dual income no kids) since we got married.  Now we’re OINKs or SINKs or something like that.  2019 is my journey back to DINK.