For the longest time, I dreaded the thought of a life of work. It started around high school. We would take personality tests to see what jobs we fit, and we anticipated which colleges we’d go to and what careers we’d start from there. But I never knew what I wanted to do. I remember watching The Office back then and being filled with anxiety that that could be my life, where I am confined to a dull life filled with work.
For a second, I thought I figured it out and decided I wanted to become a sports data analyst. I always loved sports and loved the statistics behind it all. Although I had been accepted into San Diego State for business, I added a computer science class and planned to switch to a statistics major in my first year.
But I struggled in that class, and I worried about future classes being harder, as well as all the difficult math classes I would have to take. I got scared away and stuck with business. Throughout the rest of my time at school, I never found anything that particularly excited me and never decided on a job that I thought I would like.
Once I graduated, I struggled to find work with the horrendous job market, but I did take a certification class in data analytics to go after that dream again. Eventually, I landed a job, but it ended up being more simple and less analytical than the work I hoped for. But the market was rough, and I hadn’t been at my job for a long time, so I settled.
I remained there for two and a half years. However, along the way, my boss left, and I was assigned to another team doing different work. I disliked this even more than before. And I was in the exact spot I feared as a teenager: I was chained to a job I had no passion for. But I decided to stay because it was easier than leaving. I did, though, try to switch jobs within my company.
During this process, I found myself in open water. I couldn’t stay with my current team, but no other internal jobs were what I wanted. So I was posed with a decision: I could ease into a soul-sucking job, or I could change things up.
About a year before this, I learned about court reporting from TikTok. I thought it could be an interesting and promising career, but it never turned into anything, and I stayed the course, sticking with my typical 9-5 like people encourage you to do.
Then while my job was in limbo, I came upon some videos again that talked about court reporting. They talked about the good money you could make, the interesting work, and the demand for the job. And then I considered something I was too scared to ever touch before: I considered switching from the mainstream path and doing something new, and it would require going back to school, something I didn’t think I’d ever do.
But I thought the same words Carson famously said. I thought, “Why not do this? Would you rather keep at it and work the typical corporate job, a life you never saw yourself doing and have feared for the longest time?” And it all suddenly became clear. Nothing was holding me back. Not really, at least. I had savings for this exact scenario, and I had no commitments holding me down. I knew it would only be harder to make a switch the longer I put things off.
So I left my job and my stability and signed up for school. Now, I’m on my way to becoming a court reporter soon and am fully certain and excited about my future, something I never felt previously.
It’s hit me recently that life is far more open than we think. I knew before this that you didn’t have to take the same path everyone else does, but it’s hard and scary to really convince yourself of that. But just like how Carson lived adventurously, I thought, “Why not jump in the deep end and go for it?”
He really was right when he challenged the norms we hold in our heads. So many things are mental barriers, not real limitations, and it just takes the right mindset to get over them. I can often give advice to others better than I can take it from/for myself. But this was a learning moment for me to put advice into action. I hope that this is the start of a life-long journey of living outside my comfort zone and taking the path less traveled.
Chad Hartman
