The Retirement: Leaving a 25 Year Career for What?- part 13

October 4, 2024

From 2020 to 2022, still working in landscaping, having so much to do at the new house, and just not having the gumption to do that much more than we were already working on, I really didn’t get back into the wood world.

Nick hated the idea of dust in the shop and he filled it with tools and tool boxes and RC cars. He built a huge work bench in the middle. But it was never to be a wood shop. I could do it outside or in the shed if I wanted. And I chose not to. I just didn’t have the want with the space I had to work with. But my left over wood stood in my corner of the shop waiting for me.

Even though we had this awesome shop that hardly got touched, I didn’t awaken Silva & Ore. And really I just didn’t care that much.

So life just continued on. Nick worked a lot. I kept on with landscaping but I left the field and continued with designing and estimating and ran the office. And although I had wanted out of the industry for years, I just stayed.

One day I woke up. I realized that if I didn’t make a move, I was going to be stuck there for the rest of my working life.

And I wasn’t okay with that.

Although over the years I was always looking at new opportunities, spoke to many people about job positions, nothing ever clicked.

Until one day I found and ad on indeed. This position was obscure enough that I wanted it.

So I went after it.

And I got it.

I should have known that when I wasn’t that nervous to start this job that I had zero experience in, that maybe that shoulda told me something. Maybe.

By month one I hated it. By month two I was trying to figure out how to get out. It was a horrible feeling to leave a job of 11 years to go to something that was equally bad or worse. And there was nothing at all wrong with the job, it just wasn’t me. I left a 25 year career for this? Yeah, it got me out. It was time. But it wasn’t where I was supposed to land. I look back now and just see it as the catalyst that got me out of the landscaping industry. For that I am thankful. But why did it feel the way it did?!? Why did life take me down this path??!

Every day it wasn’t raining I went to a park nearby for lunch and I walked a field there. It got me out of my cubical where I was tied to my computer with two screens with no window looking out. I’d do 2-3 miles on my walks. The field was nestled within the woods. It was a huge open field of grass and some small trees. The park mowed the perimeter so anyone could just walk it. It was my saving grace. It was my get away. I could go there and breath. It was everything I missed about living in the country years ago. And it gave me a place to dream.

Breath.

Dream.

Breath.

Sigh.

I had to find my way out. But how?

One day I was walking the field. My brain was swirling with what to do. What can I do? I really had this desire to get into metal work and get a cnc plasma cutter and create fun stuff. I didn’t have 15k to get that started. But it stayed in my mind. Then, one day as I walked the East curve up the hill in the sunshine and fall leaves, it dawned on me…. What if I awaken Silva & Ore, get a laser to up my wood work and then one day invest into the metal side. I mean, the Ore is there, so why not?!?

The young sassafras trees growing on the wood’s edge were glowing red at that time. I remember stopping and taking a picture to capture this moment. I knew I was at a turning point.

So I proposed this idea. Jumped off the bridge and got a laser and began to work.

A month later, I was on my own in the shop with my computer and my laser and lots of wood.

It was go time!!!! But how was I going to make all this work financially? I had saved money over time to get me by for about 4 months. I thought that was enough time.

-AJ