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Old 08-19-2015, 11:18 PM   #46
Swift
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Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Calgary SW
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Robotic View Post
Earlier this year I made a complete career/lifestyle change. Previously I was a Business Analyst, making great money Mon-Fri. But the thought of sitting in front of a computer, going to meetings, and working for someone else just wasn't what I wanted to do for the next 30 years.

I've wanted to reconnect with where our food comes from, and live the ranch life. So I up and quit my job, packed up my things, and started interning with an Albertan family that has an established ranch. I've been here now for 4 months, and loving it! Yeah the days can be long, but its rewarding every minute. I get to be outside, work with animals, exercise, and eat food that you helped raise/grow.

I've wanted to do this for almost 3 years now, and always kept pushing it off because I had a comfy job, good friends/family. I just wish I didn't wait as long as I did. Sometimes you just need to listen to your heart, and take a leap of faith.
You're my hero right now. I've gotta ask though... married? kids? etc.

I left university with essentially a useless degree and no idea of what I wanted to do. A decade of random jobs, and now I'm sitting at a desk all day in the insurance industry. Great benefits, nice work/life balance, decent pay, but not exactly something I enjoy doing. I probably will end up on the Business Analyst side in a couple years, or at least that's where I'm kind of planning to be. Having family/responsibility/debt unfortunately means I can't just up and leave.

I look back all the time and wish I'd chosen a better education path, but at 17, who the hell knows what you really want to do for the rest of your life. In my 30s now, there are things I'd love to be doing right now for work, but the aforementioned responsibilities and lack of education prohibit that. I'd love to be an archaeologist. It intrigued me as a child, and I'm fascinated by it now, but in those dumb teenage years, I had no interest, and so dropped Science completely as a subject. Or I'd like to have been a park ranger. Or work on a ranch or a farm. Or really anything that would allow me to work outdoors in nature. Instead, I'll likely be stuck in an office until retirement.

That seems like a depressing post, but it's more of a "oh well, it is what it is" kind of post. My company does allow telework, and so my eventual goal is to buy an acreage and turn it into my own little wild haven, spend half the week there and half the week in the office.
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