New Beginnings

I know that I never mentioned it, but I changed jobs. I left AKT (public accounting) at the end of August and started my new job as a controller for a steel erection company in early September. I am now in my 3rd week and finally starting to settle into my new role. I was terrified to leave my old job because I had been there for 4 years (almost) and I felt comfortable there. Leaving meant giving up that comfort and possibly not liking my new job.

There were many reasons why I felt the need to leave public accounting. Let me first say that if I had wanted to stay in public accounting, I certainly would have stayed at AKT and can't imagine doing that kind of work anywhere else.
*The hours - Nick and I both had stressful jobs. We both had busy season. His busy season stretched from June - October, mine was January - April. Busy season on both counts consisted of 6 days a week, 12 hour + days. As you can see, that left us with November, December and May to have time to be with each other. It just wasn't working anymore.
*The hours in conjunction with wanting a family - While our family hasn't grow yet, we know that we want to expand it in the future. As noted above, neither one of us had much free time from some type of busy schedule. In an effort to decrease one of our busy schedules, it made sense that one of us would switch to something less stress filled. It naturally, made sense that it would be me.
*The work - Long term, I wasn't able to see myself doing the public accounting thing. I looked upward at the positions I would be promoted to and realized that I really wasn't all that interested in doing any of the jobs above me.
*The future - I feel like learning things that will benefit me in the future is a good idea. While public accounting provided me with invaluable skills and knowledge, long term, I didn't see myself doing that job or holding that career. I believe that the job I have now is filling in skills that will be adventageous in the future and that the job that I have now will also mold into my future plans in a more positive way.

So there you go, my new job - a big and very welcome change. So far, I really like it. I have so much variety in my day and I have so much more time. I feel like I can finally do many of the things that I want to do. Take a photography class, work on my house decorating and the like, learn how to cook better, have a nice yard, etc. It is very exciting.