I left corporate 7 months ago now. (I missed 6 months - sue me) And it still feels surreal. I come from a blue collar family, where the expectation is that you work hard, find a good job, and commit all that you have to them. Loyalty is deserved, not earned. I really had no insights to corporate other than movies & TV, so you can imagine how much of a shock it was that you didn’t wear fancy heels and suits and head into a skyscraper every day to eat expensive meals around the clock. It’s *hard* to let go of the life you had made up for yourself - even if it was just a vision in your head. The first few months after leaving included a lot of grief, and just a feeling that my younger self would be let down by this, after all the work that went into it. We forget that in the U.S., our jobs are way more than just jobs, they’re a part of our identity. I still struggle with an answer when someone asks what I do for work now and what I dream of doing later. What I know now is ...