Getting laid off was not part of the plan.
In October 2024, I lost my job while my family was getting ready to welcome our second child. At first, I was anxious. That is probably the answer most people would give.
I had a wife and toddler at home, another baby on the way and of course all the bills.
But after the first wave of panic settled, something unexpected happened.
I felt lighter.
Not because the money stress disappeared. It did not. But I was no longer waking up every day under the same pressure I had been carrying for years.
I had worked in business operations for a long time, mostly around healthcare startups. I cared about the work. I believed in the mission. I liked being part of companies that were trying to help people.
But the work had started taking more from me than I wanted to admit.
Long hours.
Constant problems.
Unrealistic expectations.
Always feeling like if something went wrong, I should have seen it coming.
When the job ended, I finally had enough distance to see how tired I had been.
I also got time back with my family. Real time. Not the half-present kind where your body is home but your brain is still at work. I got to be there with my kids in a way I had missed more than I realized.
That time changed the way I looked at work.
I did not want to go back to the same kind of office job just because it was familiar. I did not want another role where the reward for solving problems was more problems and a longer day.
This led me to think about what kind of future I actually wanted.
That is what eventually led me to the union trades.
At first, I was mostly thinking about benefits. Healthcare mattered a lot with a growing family. Then I started looking at pay scales, retirement, apprenticeship programs, scheduled raises, and what it meant to be represented by a union.
The more I looked, the more it started to feel like a real path.
Not an easy path.
Not a guaranteed path.
But a real one.
If you are reading this after losing a job, or after realizing the career you built no longer fits, I do not think there is one clean answer. I also do not think every hard reset feels good while it is happening.
Mine did not.
But it gave me space.
And sometimes space is what lets you finally tell yourself the truth.
For me, the truth was:
I needed to build something different, a new career.
That is where this journal starts.