The $76K Project: Reboot

(Originally posted on The $76K Project on 4/29/2019) A few days after I quit, I walked my son to school as I usually do. Normally, the five minutes before we need to scuttle out the door feel rushed, with me barking out orders to  Put on your shoes!  and  Find your jacket!  so that I can get him to where he needs to be before hurrying back home to start work. On that morning, though, I didn't feel compelled to prod him along. He took his sweet time donning his footwear and backpack, and then we ambled towards campus, enjoying the warmth of the sun after months of cold, soggy winter. "Mom," he said as we approached the crosswalk, "I'm glad you're taking time off. You're so much more relaxed." And with that single statement, the necessity of my career break was validated. My break is not just benefiting me, I realized. It's benefiting my family, too. They deserve a mom and partner who isn't living in a perpetual state of stress and operating in

(Originally posted on The $76K Project on 4/21/2019) A little over a month ago,  I wrote about my overwhelming situation at work and the crippling anxiety I was experiencing as a result . I was just six weeks into my new editing job, and it was already a disaster.  I  was a disaster. At night, I was plagued with insomnia; during the day, I was battling panic attacks and fighting to focus on the words on the page - problematic, since the job required rapid, quality editing of multiple manuscripts on a daily basis. I was cranky and irritable. My family tiptoed around me like I was a human minefield. Although I’ve grappled with anxiety for most of my life (and particularly with work anxiety over the past five years), this time it felt different. It felt damaging and dangerous and wrong. A lot of you got that impression, too, and in your comments on my post, you suggested I walk away. But I forced myself to hang in there a little while longer, first because I wanted to save as much FU mone