Me on my 36th Birthday

I have been working in Corporate America now for 14 years – how time flies.  How can that be – I still feel like I’m 22 and just starting out.  After all, what 36 year old has friends throw her a roller skating birthday party!  My ass still hurts from that party!I live in New York City – I’ve developed a love/hate relationship with it.  There’s no place in the world like it (at least from what I’ve seen so far).  So much variety and newness everyday, so many choices, so many noises, so much garbage, so many people, so much creativity, so much concrete, so much, so much, so much…

Someone once called me a tumbleweed – I only stay somewhere about 3 years – and then I must tumble to the next place.  Yet this time, I’m tumbling to the next adventure – the globe.  This propensity to tumble around is strange considering I grew up in the midwest (Peoria, IL) in the same house for the first 18 years of my life.  Then something happened…I got out…and never looked back.  I slowly moved to bigger and bigger cities.  First the midwest (Omaha, Minneapolis), then the west coast (San Francisco), then the big, big city – NYC.   I’ve been in NYC 3 years now, I’m itchin’ to tumble again!

I was 30 yrs old when I got my first passport and went out of the country – Istanbul.  I went with my friend, Giancarlo, who grew up in that area.  It was overwhelming to have Turkey be the first country you go visit – but that’s when I caught the bug.  Part of me wishes I could do that trip over again as I feel like more of a seasoned traveler now, but at the same time the newness and innocence of it all was perfect.

I have been working in the Information Technology industry and have finally realized that no matter how lucrative of a job it is – it’s not me.  I don’t get excited by bits and bytes.  I get excited about photography, creativity, sunlight, and socializing, but not hardware and networks.

So maybe this is my midlife crisis…a little early I know – but I’m not really sure what is driving me to do this.  I just know that I need a break.  A break from New York, a break from Information Technology, and I need to stretch my creative muscles a bit, and see other things – and sorta find myself.

Everyone always asks me what I’m going to do when I come back.  I have no answer to that question, and that makes me nervous.  But I’m telling myself to live each day to the fullest and not worry about it.  I will leave my dance card wide open and just see what happens.  However – mainly I will enjoy my year of not being in a conference room, with an agenda about stuff that doesn’t interest me.  I will no longer have to daydream during those meetings about other exotic places – I will be living it.