I have been a CPA for 5 years, worked in public accounting and oil and gas. I went to Texas A&M University and got my bachelors and masters degrees, graduated, moved to Houston, and started putting in some hard time at the office. I never hated (but majorly disliked at times) being an accountant, but I never loved it either. I figured that is what I picked, and that is what I'd be doing the next 40 years of my life. Actually, more like the next 50 years, because I am pretty sure my generation and beyond will have to work long into our seventies just to save for retirement. Anyway, I always kept this in the back of my mind, but never really thought too much about it in realistic terms. How about, "Wake up Laura! Life is about to pass you by, and you never took the time to pursue what you love...and for what, a predictable job that gets the bills paid and a lifestyle that might bore you to death??". NO THANKS. It wasn't until one weekend spent in the beautiful Texas Hill Country with my Mom that made me wake up and smell the roses.
On a Friday afternoon in June 2012, I packed my bags, halled butt out of work, and headed straight west on I10 towards San Antonio. About 40 miles out of the big city, I turned off down the road to New Braunfels, Tx. Overlapping the plains of south Texas and the Texas hill country, lay one of the cutest towns in the whole state. My parents moved to the outskirts of this town about 4 years ago, so that is where I have been calling my home away from home for the better part of my after college adult life. On that Sunday, my Mom and I were headed to the H.E.B (ie Henry E. Butts Grocery), that was located in an expanding part of town. At some point on the way, one of us mentioned checking out some of the new neighborhoods being built and any model homes that might be open that day. My parents and I had always loved to look at model homes and open houses when I was growing up. There was just something exciting and hopeful about walking through a perfectly decorated, uniquely designed home. I think it is human nature, or maybe it is just in our genetics, to create the fantasy in your mind about what your life would be like to live in this magnificent home. To me, going through the model homes it pure joy, and I realized that day that I was doing the completely wrong thing with my life. I had chosen the wrong career and the wrong industry, and I knew that I had to find a way to follow desire for what I loved.
At first, I thought it was just too late. I had my time in school, chosen accounting, and I had to live with the path I had chosen. But as time went on, I couldn't let that feeling go, the feeling of being trapped and the feeling that I would look back in thirty years and hate myself for not following my dreams.
Everyone probably has feeling like this at some point, or maybe all the time. I tried to tell myself I needed to be a "big" girl, and that most people don't have a true passions for what they do for a living. I own a house, have a car payment, have bills to pay, and no savings whatsoever. The economy was in the dumps, so companies were not compensating well, but at the same time inflation was through the roof. And that my friend is a bad combination!
To wrap this part of the story up, I though long and hard, and actually decided to take a chance and go for my dreams, even if it meant challenges and sacrifices along the way. At this point, nothing can stand in my way of having the life that I want to have.
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