At fifty years old—an age when most people start planning for the next phase of their careers, promotions, or early retirement—I walked away.
Not gracefully, not with a calculated strategy or a vision board, but abruptly, almost impulsively. One morning I woke up, drove to the office, sat through another meeting where everyone spoke in circles, and felt something inside me snap.
The polite nodding, the forced smiles, the weight of responsibility that felt less like duty and more like a cage—I couldn’t do it anymore. After twenty-seven years at the same company, I closed my laptop, packed my mug and my favorite pen, and handed in my resignation.
I had enough savings to breathe for a bit. Not enough to live lavishly, not enough to coast forever, but enough to survive while I figured out what life after corporate burnout looked like.
But walking away from my job wasn’t the only role I ended up quitting. Without fully realizing it, I also stepped away from another exhausting, thankless position: being the full-time financier to my grown children.
Some people fantasize about retirement or freedom. Me? I fantasized about not having my phone buzz every week with a variation of the same message:
“Mom, can you send me $200? I promise I’ll pay you back.”
“Mom, rent is due and I’m short again.”
“Mom, my car insurance doubled. Can you help?”
“Mom, my card declined, can you spot me until Friday?”
It had become so normal that I stopped recognizing it as a burden. It felt like motherhood—an extension of the years of doctor appointments, school events, and scraped knees. Except now the emergencies weren’t fevers and nightmares, but overdraft fees and impulsive spending.
After I quit my job, I felt something surprising: relief, yes, but also clarity. I finally had the mental space to see how drained I’d become. My kids weren’t bad people. But they were used to a version of me who always said yes, even when it meant sacrificing my own stability.
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