Back in February I quit my job as an Network Architect and left a 12 year career after I just simply burned out. The money was pretty good but having a 1 year old kid at home changed things for me all of a sudden. I wouldn't say I ever LOVED my work but for the most part I didn't hate it. I just got to the point in life where I started looking into the future and the thought of doing this for the next 30 years didn't entice me in the least.
So I went from working downtown every day to working on the family grain farm. I grew up on a farm, so it's not as drastic a lifestyle change as one would think. It's been an interesting transition but one I am glad I made now because I am pretty sure another 10 years down the road it would have been much tougher to leave.
Farming is actually a pretty cool gig. I work when there is stuff to do, but when there isn't I can pretty much do what I want. I get to spend summers outside and winters should give me more time for hobbies and snowboarding. It's been great for the family as I've been around much more, I can do more with my wife and kid and I am just way less grumpy overall. One thing I found with working 50 hours a week and spending 1.5 hours in traffic each day getting angry was that I came home on edge and ended up very protective over what little "time" I had to do things. I am just feeling way more relaxed these days.
Will miss the steady paycheck though.
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