The Written Podcast: A New Era

Everybody at some point in their lives experiences the end of one era, and the beginning of another. The end of something significant in their lives, transitioning over to another – it can be quite daunting, and scary.

Our younger lives are full of new eras: Our first day of school, our last day of primary school, our first day of high school, our last day of high school, college, university. When we step foot into the big wide world, that’s a new era, starting a new job, progressing from one level to another, becoming a manager, maybe even higher. New eras happen all the time, and when one does come to a close do we really reminisce on what has happened, and the memories we’ll be taking with us as we continue forward into a new chapter of our lives.

I’m writing this post because this Monday, I started a new era. Or, to be specific, I’ve started transitioning over to a new era. Since last April, I have been a driver. My job role was to pick up customers’ vehicles, bring them back to the yard to have work done to them, then once it’s all done, take it back at the end of the day. I secured my driving job quite suddenly, to be honest. Someone I’ve known for a long time phoned me up and asked if I wanted a job, and I said yes, and the next day I was walking in through the door, interviewed, secured the job, and began working the following day.

During my stint at retail – a post for another time – I realised it wasn’t for me. It wasn’t necessarily the job that pushed me away from retail, but instead the people within. I understand most of the people’s personalities get pushed from pillar to post every single day, unfortunately it helped me decide that retail wasn’t my cup of tea. It was a new era, though. My first job was in retail, and it was the beginning of a new era. I was officially an independent person, earning my own money, pathing my future one day at a time… until I ended up hopping from one job to another. Since 2015 – including my new one – I’ve had five jobs. Two sessions within retail, an unenjoyable stint in a mailroom because of the constant threat of not being needed anymore looming over you, causing unnecessary stress, the driving job, which is, as of now, the longest job I’ve ever had. I remained as a driver for over a year, and I was good at the job. Each day was busy, hectic even, but 99% percent of all work was completed each and every single day.

I absolutely loved being behind the wheel, navigating unknown roads, or driving to familiar destinations without the need of a satnav, getting paid to sit in traffic, listening to music, talking to my colleagues, enjoying being outside in the fresh air. I was driving on average 500 miles a week, which was a lot when having to squeeze every mile within a normal working day. I expected to finish late on some days, and I did – but I wouldn’t say it was the only reason why I decided to walk away from driving altogether. One of the reasons, and understandably so, is because my new job offered more money. However, I also know that you shouldn’t always give up something you love for more money, because you may not entirely love the new era, and therefore start spiralling down into the doldrums, subsequently lose motivation and become stressed with having to keep going. It sadly does happen to a lot of people. However, I transitioned over when I believed it was the right time to do so.

I still absolutely love driving, but rather unexpectedly, I found that that particular job was the one to drag me down until I became demotivated, lethargic, and I had no idea why. That was, until it clicked into place.

I was thinking about the future, about buying a house, when I realised that with my then current job as a driver, I wasn’t going anywhere. I couldn’t really move forward. My subconscious was telling me that, if I were to look at the facts, there wasn’t much of a future for me at my job, in terms of progressing with my day to day life.

My new job does, completely, allow that to happen. I now have a concrete future ahead of me, and as a result, I am happy. But, with all new beginnings, I was nervous. I was nervous for all the right reasons, and those are the best nerves, because it means I was confident I’d do a good job, but nervous because it was something completely different to what I was doing before. Instead of driving 500 miles per week, I would be stationary in one room. It’s the biggest new era I’ve experienced since transitioning from high school to college, except bigger. High school and college may have different atmospheres, but they ultimately do one thing, teach – you’re in a classroom, being taught by a teacher. It’s the same but different, therefore is a big change, but not necessarily completely different. Going from being a driver to an office based job is much bigger change. I’m no longer in front of a steering wheel, but instead a computer. I’m no longer driving a car, but instead typing on a keyboard, sorting out paperwork.

But the most important thing is that I’m happy. And I am.

New eras are scary, I get that. Sometimes the scariest eras are ones you have no control over whether you enter them or not. Sometimes you know when the right time to end one and begin another is, and maybe you will be scared. There’s nothing wrong with being scared of a new era, it can be a monumental change – but if you know without a doubt you’ll be happy, then that new era was meant for you.

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)