I work on these stories seven afternoons a week.
My workweek isn’t that bad because I only work about three hours in the afternoon, and driving to work in rush hour traffic is a thing of the past.
I used to have stressful engineering tasks, but I quit when I was 32 years old in search of a strange life. That search has taken me all over the world and allowed me to experience the performing arts for nearly 20 years, which I would not have been able to do with such a demanding workweek. Although the pay for repairing air ducts pales in comparison to that of an engineer, working from home part time is far preferable to working 60 hours a week as an engineer for a local contractor supplier. If I had to be in the office at 7 a.m. every afternoon like I did in the corporate world, I would never have been able to do standup comedy in clubs late at night like I did. I’d still be there now, building HVAC systems and counting down the afternoons until retirement, something my other coworkers are still doing some 25 years later, now I have all of these memories from 1500 or so shows, performing in front of audiences in various countries, and I won’t regret not quitting that task when I’m old and retired. If I were still working full-time on heating and cooling components, I would not have had the opportunity to live life and experience things like I have. So I’m glad I took a chance.