DEAR ABBY: I’m in my late 30s and happy in certain aspects of my life: I recently moved house and married a man I love very much. I have friends, hobbies and dreams. One of those dreams is to become a novelist, even though I’m currently doing marketing for a tech company.
This brings me to my problem: I feel depressed about my job. I don’t enjoy working in technology marketing; it’s something I’ve done in recent years to pay the bills. My job is very stressful and fast moving and people can be impatient.
I usually keep any work-related depression at bay by running, writing, and spending time with loved ones. But lately these things haven’t reduced the negative feelings I have about work that much. In fact, I began to feel less joy in the things I usually do in my spare time.
I feel like a failure for trying to write a novel in the midst of so much work. I’m afraid that if I quit my job, I won’t be able to pay the mortgage and I’ll put unfair stress on my husband. He is also unhappy in his technical job, but he does it to support us.
Getting a new job won’t fix it because I’ve felt down in other tech marketing positions that pay me enough to afford our house and save for a baby (another dream). How can I get out from under this rain cloud? Do I want too much from life? — STYMIED IN CALIFORNIA
DEAR STYMIED: A solution that might work for you would be a part-time job in tech that would help pay your mortgage while giving you free time to write. Give yourself a one-year deadline, see if there’s interest in what you’ve produced, and go from there. I wish you luck.
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