Photo courtesy of Flickr user Eole
While I was on The OBX I received a very interesting e-mail from Tom at We Love DC:
My condolences on the loss of Metblogs…
Wait a minute. What happened to DC Metblogs? I was busy getting my tan on to notice that something was going on to the place where I write about DC-centric things. A quick check-in to the mother-ship revealed that something was happening. The media company that owns Metblogs wasn’t doing so good and was in danger of shutting down.
I was a bit bummed to hear that the blog where I wrote my DC-centric things was shutting down and even though things would later look on the up and up for Metblogs, it was really the catalyst for me to start thinking about moving on. I really enjoyed the perks and thrills of being the City Captain but I wanted to find a role on a DC blog that fit my life better. Running Metblogs was just becoming too much for my busy life.
So I did what any good athlete with an expiring contract would do: I hit the market.
It was weird to think of myself as a free agent, a LeBron James of blogging perhaps (you know without the whole being a superstar thing), but I suppose after making the big jump in my career I felt eager to make a career move in blogging as well. So with interest from a couple of blogs I set out to see what my options were in the DC blog scene. I had lunch with TBD, coffee with We Love DC, and phone calls and e-mails with DCist and the Washington Post. It was really cool that after a couple of years of local blogging I was suddenly talking to the blogs I’ve always wanted to write for with a realistic opportunity to join their ranks.
Ultimately I signed on with We Love DC and I am very happy about my decision.
Looking back I think about the bigger point- how all of us should have a sense of free agency in our lives.
Sometime we feel tied down to things we really aren’t. I recently had lunch with my friend P.Q. who was recently laid off at her job. Despite the bad news that comes with her departure, she wasn’t loving her job to start with:
I wasn’t too happy at my job and I was trying to make it work. Or I thought I was. But it’s hard to be passionate about a job you can barely tolerate. I tried. I really did.
So why didn’t she leave? Well trying to find a new job while holding one down is hard to juggle and most people aren’t comfortable with quitting a job without having a new gig lined up and P.Q. felt the same way.
But how about those that get too comfortable in an unhappy situation? Those that want to leave their jobs but have already gotten indoctrinated into the daily grind they constantly complain about? I challenge those people to take a risk into the unknown. Don’t wait til life pushes you into a new direction, grab the reins and take control of your own life.
Of course the majority of Generation-Y already change jobs like it’s their job, so we are already embracing the idea of Free Agency. When it comes to our cell phone plans or toothpaste we’ve become less loyal, but those kind of choices involve less risk. Things like where you live and work has more of your life at stake. I say don’t be afraid to change anything or everything about your life, if in the end you are happier then it was worth all the hurdles and challenges it took to get there.
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