I did it. What did I do? I bailed. Skedaddled. Flew the coop. Escaped, some might even say.
Putting it plainly, I quit. I quit my corporate job after six years working in Finance in the heart of Manhattan.
I handed in my letter of resignation on Monday, January 17th, 2023. The word that I was leaving spread like wildfire, and reactions were something like this:
The reactions I got were frankly quite flattering. People were genuinely shocked that I was leaving, especially after I told them why. Before I met with boss in the afternoon, I had a private conversation with my closest and very beloved coworker (who for the sake of this article we will call “Jane”) to share the news with her. It was pretty excruciating, and I started crying. Jane had been my work bestie, my confidante, and my biggest advocate since my very first day at the company. But alas, it was time for me to move on from my fancy-schmancy corporate job in the Financial Services industry in New York City.
So, why did I quit? Sometime in November I decided that I would like to relocate to Europe for an indeterminate length of time. Now that I am a full-fledged citizen of Poland (in addition to being a citizen of the United States of America), I do not need a visa to work or stay indefinitely in the European Union. It took me some time to gather the courage to pull the trigger on this decision, but I am going to go stay with a friend of mine in France for a while as I figure out what I want to do with myself in the long run.
The choice to leave what is commonly thought of as an almost stereotypically cushy job was a difficult one to make. I was never a fish out of water in the corporate world; on the contrary, I fit in well and navigated that environment with relative ease. However, I grew bored with the drudgery and the 24/7 demands of someone in my position. Although I thrived within the confines of my role, it became clear over time that there really wasn’t any room for me to grow and I frankly didn’t want to remain in NYC anyway. Ultimately, I realized that I want to make a name for myself and spend much more time working towards goals in other arenas. I have enormous gratitude for having been able to hold down a demanding corporate job and accumulate enough savings to move overseas. While I don’t know what the future holds for me, I do want to keep writing and put my energies toward more creative pursuits.
I have been fortunate enough to accumulate some savings, and I intend to travel a bit throughout Europe over the summer and into the fall. The clock is running out on my time in NYC, and I am going to be moving in early May. I still can’t believe that this is actually happening, but indeed it is. I have not posted a new article on this site in two years because I have been so busy, but going forward I would like to write a new article at least twice a week. I think I do have potential as a writer, and I would like to explore that further.
I still struggle with a lot: depression, dropping the weight I put on during the COVID-19 WFH days, financial anxieties, and more. That said, I am actively working on myself and I intend to accomplish a lot over the next few months. I will be sharing a lot of what I am going through on here, as I think it might be useful to document my journey. Additionally, I am working on an article about obtaining and eventually leaving a corporate job on the best possible terms. Perhaps that will be useful to someone someday.
Thanks for reading. More to come soon.
~GCL~
factorycandy 