I quit my 6-figure consulting job to take a gap year. I felt guilty at first, but it's the best decision I could've made.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Kym Wootton, a 42-year-old from Boulder, Colorado. Insider has verified her employment with documentation. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
In 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, I was working as the chief administrative officer at a consulting firm, where I was earning six figures a year. I managed the marketing, human-resources, IT, and project-management departments. I was also responsible for integrating companies that we were buying.
I kept trying to write on the weekends or in the evenings, finding 30 minutes where I could, but that did not work for me. I was working a lot of hours, checking emails, and working on projects for my day job on the weekends. And when I wasn't so busy with meetings, I was trying to keep up with my sons and their activities. Unfortunately, I just couldn't find the discipline to also be a good writer. And so, I felt like I needed to not be working at my job anymore.
I soon realized that I just had to stop thinking like that, and that I should accept that there would never be a"right" time to leave. I told myself that, right now, quitting is the most important thing for me. After the gap year, I don't think I want to go back to doing the type of work that I did before, but I've thought about doing consulting in the future. I've also thought about starting to copywrite or doing another job that lets me use my writing skills.
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