A New Kind of Life

Let me tell you what I'm in the process of doing with my life. For the past 8.5 years, I've been a computer programmer by trade. Initially, I worked in the computer games industry. After a few years, I moved to an investment bank. The work had similarities in both, although the environments and culture of the industries was completely different. My most recent workplace was extremely intense: a high pressure environment, with expectations of excellence. I am the kind of person that initially responds well to such an atmosphere: I push myself to be as excellent as required, and beyond. I hold myself to impossibly high standards. And a workplace culture like this feeds off this perfectionist, driven attitude (which means it's prevalent among the workforce): everyone goes further, gives more, until there is no more to give.

Over the past two and a half years, I've had two episodes of serious depression. This is an illness that I've struggled with before, but never to the extent that I had these times. And although many of the underlying issues were personal, and nothing to do with my choice of work, both times it has been clear that my job has contributed in a significant way.

Thanks to work-provided health insurance, I was also able to get a level of treatment that I've never had before: with two extended periods of leave from work, two hospital stays, and a lot of talking, I realised that I needed to leave. I no longer felt any level of fulfillment in my job, working long and intense hours to attempt to make lots of money for people who already had too much money. The technical challenges were still there, but I was losing interest: as my career was progressing, I had less time for programming (the aspect of the work I enjoyed). I longed to do something creative, and practical.

So, searching for options, I found out about various creative industries and endeavours I might pursue. Ceramics, stained glass, textiles, stonemasonry, boat building... and furniture making. As I looked into courses and training options, I kept coming back to the wood-based crafts, and particularly furniture and cabinet making...

And so I decided to try and make my way out of my current job, into a whole new industry, a whole new life. I took a short course, to check that I would actually enjoy the activity as much as I'd hoped. I made this:





A double sided game board: chess on one side, backgammon on the other. Hand-cut veneers of zebrano, wenge, dark walnut, rippled sycamore, with a dark walnut edge.

And I loved every second of it. Even small exercises like learning the basics of a dovetail joint:



Just wonderful. I had a sense of satisfaction that I'd never thought could be part of my life outside of creative hobbies. And a sense of comfort in the materials, the atmosphere of the workshop... I felt deeply happy.

And so, nine months later, I have left my job in The City, and I'm waiting to start a year-long course in furniture and cabinet making: just one more month until I start. It's a scary step, of course: I've left behind a regular good wage, the familiarity of an office environment, my established career and skills... for a dream. But at every step of this change I've felt, deep in my belly, that this is the right thing to do.

I hope that as I progress through the course, I'll write some of my progress here, alongside my other, more regular, creative pursuits. Socks one day, occasional tables the next, perhaps.