Man, December 2019. That was a wild time, wasn’t it? I remember stumbling onto this blog post, or maybe it was an email, talking about “Virgo Career December 2019: Is Change Coming?” And I just chuckled, you know? Like, really? Is change coming for me? I was in a spot, stuck. Felt like I was just going through the motions, punching the clock, doing the same old thing day in and day out. But deep down, there was this itch, you know? This nagging feeling that something just wasn’t right.
I was slaving away at this marketing gig. Loved the people, sure, some of them anyway. But the work itself? It had just become… tedious. Every morning, I’d drag myself out of bed, make coffee, stare at the ceiling for a bit, and then gear up for another round of what felt like just pushing paper around. I’d open up my laptop, see the same spreadsheets, the same email chains, the same project names. It was like living the movie “Groundhog Day” but with worse coffee. My energy was just draining away. I was doing a decent job, hitting my targets, but there was zero passion left.
So when that “Is Change Coming?” thing popped up, it really hit home. I started thinking, like, “Okay, universe, you got my attention. What’s up?” I wasn’t really a big astrology person, but it just resonated with how I was feeling. This deep, gut feeling that I couldn’t ignore anymore. It felt like the air itself was buzzing with a different kind of energy, a restless vibe. I found myself just staring out the window during meetings, daydreaming about doing something, anything, different.
The Grind and the Spark
I remember one afternoon, right in the middle of a super boring client call, I just zoned out. My mind started wandering. I thought about all the things I actually enjoyed doing. Writing, yeah, I always loved messing around with words. Building stuff, even if it was just little side projects. Helping people figure things out. And I realized none of that was happening in my current role. Not one bit. That’s when the gears started really turning. It wasn’t about a specific job title or a big raise; it was about getting some of that spark back.
First thing I did? I started cleaning up my old LinkedIn profile. Made it look all shiny and new, like I was ready for something. I didn’t even know what that “something” was yet, but it felt like a good first step. Then, I dug out my old resume, dusted it off, and started tweaking it. I spent hours late at night, after the wife and kid were asleep, just fiddling with words, trying to make my experience sound exciting again, even to myself. It felt a bit silly, like I was preparing for a battle I hadn’t even signed up for.
I began browsing job boards, not with any real intention to apply, but more out of curiosity. Just seeing what was out there. What skills were people looking for? What kind of roles existed that I’d never even considered? I’d click on postings, read through them, and sometimes just sigh. A lot of it still sounded like the same old grind, just with different company names. But every now and then, a quirky job description would catch my eye, or a skill requirement would pop up that made me think, “Hey, I could actually learn that.”
- I started digging into online courses. Coursera, Udemy, all those places. I picked up a beginner’s course on Python. Had no idea why, just felt like it.
- I bought a couple of books on copywriting. Just to see if I still had that knack.
- I even reached out to an old college buddy who had pivoted into something completely different, just to pick his brain.
The Unexpected Turn
The turning point actually came from a completely unexpected direction. I was complaining to my wife one night, just venting about how stale everything felt. And she, bless her heart, just looked at me and said, “Why don’t you just start writing about all this stuff you’re learning? All your thoughts? Just put it out there.” It was such a simple idea, but it hit me like a ton of bricks. That’s when I decided, “You know what? I’m gonna start a blog.” Not for money, not for a new job, just to actually do something different, something for myself. To document my journey, all this learning, all these thoughts.
So, I bought a domain. Fumbled around with WordPress for days, watching YouTube tutorials, figuring out themes and plugins. It was messy, it was frustrating, but it was also exhilarating. Every little thing I figured out, like getting a picture to upload correctly or embedding a video, felt like a huge win. I started writing about my attempts at Python, about the copywriting books, about the feeling of being stuck and trying to get unstuck. It was raw, unpolished, exactly what I wanted.
I remember hitting ‘publish’ on my very first post, probably sometime in late December 2019, or maybe early January 2020. My heart was pounding. It was just a small thing, a few hundred words about how I felt about my job and wanting a change. But it was my change. That little blog, that little project, it wasn’t a new career overnight, but it was the start of something. It was me taking control. It was me saying, “Yeah, change is coming, and I’m gonna be the one driving it.” It felt good, really good. Like I’d finally opened a window in a dusty room and let in some fresh air. That feeling, that sense of agency, it was exactly what I needed.
