Ain't no one gonna do it for you.

One of the adjustments I've had to make since switching jobs is that I'm no longer on a Mac in my work environment. My new employers provide everyone with PCs. I know - it's insanity.

My home computer is my laptop, Big Mac, which I've mentioned here before. I love it. I love having a laptop, and I love having a Mac, so a Mac laptop is like some kind of chocolate-covered strawberry super wonderful kind of computer situation. The only downside of working on my totable wonder, and I mean it, is that the desktop Mac I was on at my previous job had one of those giant screens where I could open two documents side-by-side in normal-sized type with no special jockeying of anything. As an editor, that's vunderbar. But for my personal use, the smaller laptop screen is fine. Getting a screen much larger than the 13" on my laptop would make the computer itself larger, and thus, heavier, so what I have is fine.

Getting used to a PC is less fine, though. I know all you PC users out there think we Mac folks are fanatics, and maybe we are, but Macs are just so much better (that's not subjective, you understand - just a fact). They're so user-friendly. Finding stuff on my PC is a pain in the rear. I keep thinking, "Where's the desktop icon of my hard drive that I can just click on and a whole map of my hard drive will just appear so that I can easily search for what I need?" And then I remember, "Oh yeah. I'm on a PC. I've got to dig around from the Start menu and hope I stumble upon what I need. Great."

(In the unlikely event that my new employer should somehow stumble upon this blog and figure out who I am, even though I carefully avoid ever mentioning anything that might out me or you, let me give this disclaimer: I'm not complaining! Everything about you, your organization, your equipment, your benefits is like a dream come true! I feel like I've entered into Nirvana by getting hired here! Bless you!)

Switching jobs has also necessitated learning a new phone system (I still don't know my own phone number here), a new organization, new editing style (it's the details that bedevil an editor - "Oh, you capitalize that? Well. Okay. I've never capped that, and I don't know anyone who does. But you say we should. So, okay, I guess I will - and I'll try to stop my eye from twitching like that everytime I have to ignore the capping."), and all new people.

It's been several years since I last changed jobs, and I forgot what a big deal it is. You get in a groove somewhere. You know who is who and what is what and where things are and how things work. It's a big deal to change pretty much all of that. I'm doing fine and picking things up, and I hope it won't take long to get into a groove here. But to everyone who has been in one place for a long time, and the thought of starting over somewhere else seems beyond daunting, I can say this: I completely get that feeling. I understand. And you're right that it's a lot to change. But make sure that when you get to the end of your life, you're not looking back and wishing you'd stepped out of that comfortable (or maybe uncomfortable, but known) spot and just given something else a try.

You don't have to change your whole career or life if you're in the right field - maybe just your job. If you DO want to change your career, get on with it. Take a class, or talk to someone who does what you want to do, or just start making a plan. There really is no time like the present, and I promise you, it won't happen unless you make it happen. You might get fired or something and be forced out of where you are, but it's still going to be you that has to take the steering wheel and steer that ship of yours where you want it to go. It's all you. If you don't JUST DO IT, no one else is going to do it for you.

You get one shot at this life. One. Don't waste time. Don't end up looking back with regret. It's awkward to start someplace new. Sometimes you lose some of what you had built up to (vacation time, pay, etc.), but you get on a new path, and that new path can lead you to more than you would've had on the old one. Sacrifice, risk - it's often part of the deal. But ya gotta think long-term. So just do it. Even if it means working on a PC for the forseeable future.