Quitting my safety job wasn't brave. It was just math.

Some people dream about corner offices. But I dream about wide open spaces.

...I dream about being able to enjoy the sunshine. Ride my horses for miles, and not feel like I owe an explanation for why I prioritize things that make me happy. I dream about a life that feels like it's mine. That is rich with purpose and freedom.

So last week, I quit my job.

Okay, I quit one of my jobs...because for an entire year I worked two full-time jobs, and for 9 years before that, I've had a full time job plus a part-time job. But I quit the safety blanket job. The job with a 40lk, a bi weekly paycheck, and the corporate promise of climbing the coveted healthcare career ladder.

On the most basic level, I quit to focus on building my own business. But on a more truthful, stripped-down level, I quit because after two years of dedicating myself to seeking growth within the organization, I finally realized the "goal" at the end wasn't the one meant for me.

For those two years, I interviewed obsessively for leadership positions. 15 times to be exact. And every single time l didn't get the role, something quietly clarifying was happening

It took stepping back to even ask myself what the ending ! was chasing actually was... a middle management role in healthcare. And when I finally sat with that question honestly, the answer was no.

That wasn't my dream. It was a destination I'd inherited without examining it.

That realization? It was the gift.

Over the last decade, I've been a sexual health educator, a professor, a clinic manager, a cowgirl, and a business owner - many at the same time (again, chronic multi-job worker) - always with that through-line of building, creating, and doing more than one thing at once. It's just who I am.

So when the corporate path wasn't opening up, I finally did something I always knew I would, I just hadn't figured out the when: I made my side income a real, legitimate business.

And last year, running it full-time alongside my corporate job showed me something I'll be forever grateful for...It showed me exactly what I was capable of

This year has given me everything. It gave me confidence, clarity, and proof. Proof that the skills I'd spent a decade sharpening, in clinical settings, in classrooms, in business, are mine to keep and mine to build on.

Those 15 rejections weren't failures. They were the universe being extremely literal with me: this isn't your path. Not because I wasn't good enough, but because I had already started my next chapter.

Every single one of those experiences made me sharper, more self aware, and more ready for what I'm stepping into now.

Quitting my safety job wasn't brave. It was just math.

I'd spent a decade accumulating skills, perspective, resilience, and range that most people never get. I have an extraordinary foundation. And now, for the first time, I get to build something on it that is entirely, unapologetically mine.

I don't know exactly what comes next

But I am so ready to find out...and this time I get to decide to make lots of space for wide open spaces.