November 24, 2007

• update

  (Belated) Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. I know I seem to have disappeared from this outlet, but things have been relatively crazy until now.

  Big things have happened since the last entry.

  In an effort to move on with my life, I closed on and moved to an apartment nearby where I used to live in Jersey City. Going back to living alone is a totally different ballgame, but indeed, doing so definitely made me realize what my priorities should be. It has made making ends meet much more challenging, but at the same time, I've been developing better habits such as cooking more often rather than picking up food.

  The biggest realization I made during the past few months was that my job was hurting me rather than helping me. Healthwise, I was deteriorating. My average bedtime was 2:30am and slowly moving towards 3:00am for no valid reason that I could think of. Moreover, I've gotten sick more times over the two years than any other point in my life. My social life, in particular this year, has been hampered by working a countless number of late nights and weekends.

  To make a long story short, a friend of mine from grammar school contacted me via Friendster looking for ASP.NET programmers. Three weeks later, I found myself accepting a job offer for a company that develops educational products in Piscataway, NJ.

  I was very surprised as I am admittedly someone who knows "a little about a lot of things." The great thing about this company is that they are giving me a chance to prove myself, although I am not as familiar with ASP.NET paradigms as, say, platform-independent C++. The position would give me a chance to specialize in something, which I did not get an opportunity to do at my current job during the past 9 1/2 years.

  Frankly, I still wonder sometimes whether I've done the right thing. By accepting the new position, I'm basically throwing away a career in the financial industry, one of the most lucrative industries in this area. But such is a career that I've had no motivation to develop actively, so why even bother?

  I have the utmost respect for my father, who has worked at places for ten or fifteen years at a time. Maybe if I were married and had a family, I could stay at my company and fight for my survival even if I wasn't completely satisfied with my work.

  But that is not the case with me presently. It had gotten to the point where my job was actively hindering progress in my life.

  When that thought comes to my head, it comforts me that I am at least taking a chance and doing something about it rather than letting things be. After announcing my decision to leave the company, I've certainly been sleeping much better than I was six months ago.

  December 3, here I come.

  • 1:54 am
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