The last of my major changes is in my career.

Last Friday was my last day at work. I am currently, aside from my writing gig, unemployed.

I realize that may seem like a bad decision to some, considering my financial situation is quite dire.

But I had to make a decision between working at a job I love and living somewhere safe. I ended up choosing the later.

It was not an easy decision in the least. I got that job just weeks after running away. My coworkers were the first people I really interacted with, the first (and in many ways, only, for a while) people I got to know. They became more than just fellow employees and coworkers. They became my family, and that is something they reminded me of quite often.

I believe I was meant to be there. I believe I got that job for a reason, among all of the other jobs out there, the other offers I had, I somehow ended up with a group of the most accepting, hilarious, and caring people I could have encountered. That job was my escape from the chaos I was living in. That job was my social life. It was more than a job to me. But I knew I had to leave it.

It wasn’t just one thing. I realized months ago that I was becoming less and less able to do my work. I was physically and mentally exhausted. I got the work I needed to get done, done, but it was taking a toll on me. I had no energy, And as my health started deteriorating, it only got worse. I ended up using a wheelchair at times because I was too weak or too dizzy to walk around. There were many times I had to hide in the bathroom or in the corner of the backroom because I was in too much pain to keep walking.

I knew eventually I was going to have to make a change. It just came a little quicker than I thought.

When everything happened with my living situation, I had to make that choice between my job and a home. With everything else that had already been happening with work, and the consistent chaos that seemed to follow every living situation I got into, I made the decision to leave my job and take the safe living option.

As I said, it was not an easy decision. I cried in the days leading up to my final day, and I cried even more as I hugged my coworkers before I left that last day of work.

I jumped to the conclusion that by leaving my job, I was also leaving the people in it. But I then realized that I was leaving the job, not the people there. These people will still be in my life. I can still talk to them. I can still visit. That part of my life is not gone, it’s just different.

I considered getting another job. I actually interviewed and got accepted for a full-time position. But then I realized I would only be putting myself in an unhealthy situation. I was (at that time, and still) ending up in the hospital every few days, still passing out at random. It didn’t feel right to start a job and put them at risk, so I backed out.

For now, I am taking a break. I am focusing on school and on my writing. I’m resting for the first time since I was a teenager. And most importantly, I am focusing on me and my health, following up with doctors, and trying to get to the bottom of what is wrong with my heart.

In the end, I guess it was a good decision. The hardest ones usually are.