Return From a Ten-Year Vacation
What is it like to come back to the same company after a very long sabbatical?
I’ve often thought that my life would make an epic, roller-coaster ride of a novel … for accountants.
So, I took a ten-year vacation. It just seems like such a boring thing to write about, like how I organize my paperclips. But I’ve been asked to share, and so share I will, but not about the vacation part, of course; that would be too fun. I’ll tell you about what it was like to return to work after a ten-year vacation. I’ll try to make it a least a tiny bit epic.
First of all, it was not really a vacation. I quit my highly-paid job to get a doctoral degree in psychology. I remember telling a kid on welfare how much I used to get paid. I don’t remember why I told her that; it seems like a dumb move in hindsight, but I think she asked me. Understandably, she got very upset, angry I think. Her family was struggling to get by and I had walked away from a perfectly good job that could have fed them all many times over, just so that I could provide them with free counseling. I remember feeling so fucking stupid, with this smart little kid telling me how it was. My privilege knows no bounds.
Why I quit is a long story and one that I don’t fully understand. The biggest motivator seems to…
