I quit my old salaried career job about 1 year and 5 months ago. I haven't really written updates in awhile so here's some catching up. Life is great. It really is. I make less money overall, but I no longer have a 9 to 5 schedule. My hourly pay is great. But being that I work out of a union hiring hall I often have a lot of time off. I am not going to complain about it at all.
I have been working as a stagehand setting up for concerts, plays, conventions and random events. I just got my union membership card last month! I went all in at moving up on the placement list and getting my membership. To be fair, not everyone can dedicate themselves to this. It requires being always available, at least until you are invited to apply for mebership, sometimes on no notice at all. This is difficult for anyone who already has a full time job. But before I quit my old job I had saved up money and already owned a house where my tenants mortgage covers my mortgage, taxes, insurance, water bill and garbage fee. So this job came along at the perfect time in my life. I also get to use my old skills as an instructional designer working (paid) to build online training for my local.
As I gain experience and move up the placement list I will have more opportunity to work and increase my annual income. I hope to eventually work on a touring production, hopefully in theater. I always wanted to work in concert production ever since I was in school for video production. To my surprise, I love working theater more. Maybe it's the less hectic schedule of multiday runs that is more appealing. With concerts, you're usually in and out in one day before moving onto the next city, often starting again the very next morning at 8 am after getting on a bus at 2 am. But maybe it's just fulfillment I get from being part of a theatrical production with sometimes higher artistic merits. Let's be honest, you're not always going to get to tour with your favorite band. And I'm not a fan of the majority of bands that I set up for.
I'm not a homebody. I get antsy being in one place. The road life is more for me than home life. This makes dating difficult sometimes. I'm not one for serious commitment anyway, so I don't feel I'm missing out by forgoing any long term romantic commitments. Finding people who want to date casually is sometimes difficult. But maybe that's for another post.