To quit or not to quit

That has been the eternal question for me. I had a meeting with my manager yesterday to inform him that I would be quitting my job. Today morning, I typed up the resignation letter that I had drafted on Sunday night. I will not be handing it over to him though. I have just put it in my Yahoo briefcase for future use.

Anyway. Bottom line, from our meeting it became evident that nothing is likely to change, and not too soon even if it were to change. My issues with work pressure, non-appreciation, restrictive rules on use of the internet and installation of applications were all explained away. Nothing will change here. My concern about pay is apparently shared but apparently there's a lot of bureaucracy involved in getting pay rises for guys so that may not be forthcoming very soon, if ever. However, if we had another guy for a manager, I would probably have given him my resignation letter by now. At least this guy is quite straight forward and tried to address my concerns. My decision, therefore, has been to stay put for now, see if there'll be any reactions in the next one or two months. I'll still look out for any better job offers. I avoided disclosing my decision to quit over the weekend with any of my friends, the philosopha included, for fear of being talked out of it. I've been all over the place about his decision anyway. Who knows how I'll be feeling about it all next week.

At home, people have breathed a sigh of relief. The apprehension they had displayed was similar to that which they had when I told them I wanted to do Computer Science at University. "But everyone is doing computers at these colleges in town", they said. My heart was set though, and I've been known to be a bit stubborn. Runs in the family. They probably still wish I was a doctor or something, but at least things didn't work out too badly.

One thing I've learnt from this experience, your life is your own. Seek and listen to advice, but ultimately you are answerable for your actions. Do your thing - as much as is possible. Sometimes circumstances make it difficult to do this. Life is too short to be doing what everyone else wants you to do. Make your mistakes. I was ready to have made the biggest mistake of my life [as almost everyone around me declared I was]. The freedom and relief I felt was truly liberating. I don't have anything to prove to anyone. I will do my thing. My way.