Greetings and Happy Holidays Readers!

It’s certainly been a long time since you all have heard from me, so I suppose I should answer those burning questions you have, like “Where have you been?” “Why haven’t you posted?” “Why’d you leave us on read, girl?” Well, here’s what I’ve been up to for the past year.

In January 2024, I abandoned pursuit of a bachelor’s in Piano Performance for a certification in a completely new field. We’ll get to that, so hang in there! Yes, I decided at 25 that I was going to pursue a new career path and begin the process of getting certified for this new career. I’m happy to say that as of today, I am waiting for my licensing exam results to see if I can begin my new job in 2026.

This post is going to be part of a series, “Starting Over On Purpose.” I will be giving you a look at my journey into starting over and tips if you are looking to do the same. For this post, we will start at the very beginning of how I began this journey, which was becoming aware of the fact that I needed a new purpose to pursue.

Time For a Change

Let’s take it way back so you can get some context. Since I was 9 years old, I knew I wanted to be a pianist. By 14, I had the dream of becoming a concert pianist. In college, I switched my focus to getting my bachelor’s in Piano Performance in order to one day pursue a doctorate in music and become a private piano teacher. Piano was my whole life and what I thought was my whole purpose in life, so I hadn’t spent much time thinking of doing anything else. The thought of giving it up after years of private lessons, two years of college, thousands of hours spent developing my skill, and after all the tears and frustration, quitting seemed like an impossibility.

During my 2020 summer break, we were still in the beginning days of the pandemic, and I had just had my biggest episode of pain from endometriosis. I didn’t even touch my piano the whole summer and realized as the next school year approached that it was the first time I had not missed playing the piano at all. In the back of my mind, I knew that I wouldn’t go back to pursuing piano as a career and that a major change was happening in me. The hard part was accepting it and moving forward with grieving the life and achievements I had worked so hard for.

The real acceptance and change came in 2023 when I had been working a part-time job for work experience and to be productive throughout this season of change. I had also switched my major several times, trying to find another career that sparked my interest and inspired me with as much passion as music had. Working a low-paying job that made me dread each shift, being in a toxic environment, and dealing with depression spurred me into action. So I began the search for my dream career that would check off all the things I wanted in a job.

Just like I recognized there was a sense of unfulfillment and a need for change, some of you may be feeling the same itch for something new. Some of you may not know that you are in need of a change. That’s why I’m going to give you a few signs to look out for that are signalling you may need a career makeover.

Signs you need a change in career

APATHY AND FEAR

“The energy down here has an extreme numbing effect. It feels like we are slogging our way through a thick residue of pain, torture, and endless hell.” If you relate to this quote from an episode of Ghost Adventures, then keep reading.

It takes all your energy to get up in the morning to go to work or you keep putting off getting there until the last minute. That’s a sign that you definitely lack motivation for your current job. It’s a major sign that many people ignore for YEARRRSS before coming to the realization that they should just leave. I saw many people around me doing the same and wondered why they just didn’t go find what made them happy. Of course, easier said than done. But dreading each shift is definitely a big sign you may need to let go.

2. BAD ENVIRONMENT KILLING YOUR JOY

Toxic work environments that are starting to affect you, not just at work but in your personal life is a major sign that you need to find a new work environment. Having experienced it myself, I know firsthand how those kinds of environments can affect you mentally. They are certainly more dangerous than we give them credit for. They’re exhausting and soul-draining. If you aren’t in a safe, healthy environment where employers value and respect their employees, you need to do whatever it takes to remove yourself as soon as you can. I personally vowed that I wouldn’t let any amount of money tempt me to put up with a toxic work environment in the future. That is why a good work environment is a vital aspect I look for in new jobs.

3. UNSUPPORTIVE NETWORK

I’ve since changed my stance on having friends at work and believe it is important to have at least one person you can trust and go to when the job gets stressful. You don’t NEED to be best buddies with people you work with, but it definitely makes going to work a lot more fun and motivating. If you don’t have any close relationships and spurn the idea of being friends with your co-workers, for whatever reason, that is a sign you may need a new environment with people that are supportive of you and make your job easier. I don’t know how many times I left work crying and emotionally drained just because of people I worked with. Find your people, they are out there waiting for you.

4. LACK OF PRIDE

When people ask you what you do for a living and if you like it, what is your answer? If you heave a big sigh before saying, “Well, I’m a…” or if you straight up say you hate your job, I don’t think I need to tell you it’s time to move on. I used to tell people to never consider working in the industry I used to be in (and I still tell people that), so I knew early on that it wasn’t going to be a permanent place for me. Pay attention to how you think and feel about your current job.

5. COMPLACENCY AND LACK OF GROWTH

If you’re too comfortable at your job because it doesn’t challenge you, I believe that is the biggest sign you need a different workspace, whether you want to or not. Being in a job that doesn’t see or use your full potential can lead to frustration and boredom. If you know you’re capable of more and want to find something challenging, take courage and face those challenges with gratitude for the growth they will give you. You can never reach your full potential, get that promotion, or get that dream salary if you don’t take risks and jump outside your comfort zone.

6. DAYDREAMING OF THE PERFECT JOB

Lastly, fantasizing about handing in your two weeks notice or dreaming of another career. This is a sign that your heart desires something more. Our mind tells us all we need to know, and our instincts know what’s best. We just need a little push and some courage to follow our dreams to start living that fantasy.

Those are six symptoms of career stagnation – a common but treatable condition. Take the time to assess whether you relate to any of these signs that signal it’s time for you to take a risk and chase that dream job. I always say, if there’s more cons than pros for doing something, it’s time to let that thing go and move on. Is your pros list longer than your cons list?

Taking the Leap

Essentially, that feeling of needing a purpose, longing for a passion-filled job that filled me with pride, and being uncomfortable with comfortability led me to the perfect career. Keep reading to find out what career I chose. While sitting at my desk on my long shifts at my part-time job, there was not a lot to do. So I began using that time to research jobs I might be good at.

First, I had to figure out what other skills I had besides being able to play Chopin nocturnes and etudes. That took me back to a time before music was my passion, and I remembered that reading was my first love. I was the kid you’d find at the local library instead of at the mall with friends. Writing was also something I had been told I was good at from a very early age. My parents would sneak peak in my poetry journals and tell me I would be a writer one day. During college, I excelled at proofreading. Other students often asked me for continued feedback on their essays during peer review. So starting with those skills, reading, writing, proofreading, I thought I had a good basis for finding jobs I could use those skills in.

How to find that new path and what to look for

I then needed some help finding the jobs that required those skills and what education I would need to pursue. A light bulb went off, and I remembered that I had to take a career-assessment test in high school. I kept that test from high school in case there would ever be a time I needed it. Along with that test, I found other career assessment tests online and took those as well. AI and technology has come an even longer way since I was in high school, so it gave me instant job recommendations. Each assessment I took gave me pretty much the same results. They said I’d be a good fit for office clerk (been there done that), proofreader, legal Secretary, copywriter, editor, librarian, paralegal, and court reporter.

Click here for a career assessment test!

I was impressed by these recommendations, so the next step was research. I developed a short mental list of what I wanted in a job: financial security, flexibility, disability friendly (due to my endometriosis and POTS), high job satisfaction, and the opportunity to serve others. With this list in mind, I went through each job recommendation and checked to see if any of them had these factors. One job immediately jumped out to me, not just because the average salary was higher than the others, but it also checked off all my other boxes. Could I really have found the perfect job? Could I see myself being…a court reporter?

Court reporting had never crossed my mind as a career choice, but it suddenly made sense. I’d never had interest in being a lawyer like my dad (public speaking is absolutely not for me), but I always thought it’d be cool to be a fly on the wall inside a courtroom. Not only that, but I always said if I could just have a job where I could just read all day, that’d be great. Court reporting definitely involves a lot of reading of transcripts. But if we’re being completely honest, seeing the amount of money court reporters made had my jaw on the ground and immediately made me look more into it.

Now, I won’t make this seem like it was all roses and daisies getting to the end result because throughout those two months or so of searching for the greatest career of all time, there were a lot of doubts and thoughts that the perfect job didn’t exist. There were many hours looking at jobs I thought were perfect only to find out they paid less than $50,000/yr or required a masters degree and had low satisfaction rates among employees. Scrolling through endless job boards and Indeed listings can be a soul-sucking, depressing, and exhaustive activity that leaves you pondering the meaning of life. But after all those hours of staring at my computer screen, I did find the perfect job. Two years later, I am a stenographer, certified at 225 words per minute, who has already been hired by a court reporting agency a week out of school.

A new beginning: Stenographer

People often ask me how long it took me to become a certified stenographer and how long I was in school. It took me 18 months to reach my exit speed, which is the highest speed I needed to be certified to work. I started online school at the College of Court Reporting in January 2024 and just finished my courses in November of this year. Now, I might have made it look easy, but stenography certainly isn’t. Only 1% of stenography students finish in the 2 years given to complete their coursework on time, but most people take 4+ years or end up giving it up for other court reporting methods.

So how did I do it? Honestly, I don’t know. I told myself when I got my acceptance email that I wasn’t going to let anything get in my way of achieving this. It does help that I’m single and don’t have kids or even a pet fish. I was able to teach piano part-time on the weekend to pay any bills, and the rest of the week I focused on mastering this new skill. It was hard, but not the hardest thing I’ve ever done. That accolade goes to the time I had to learn and perform Chopin’s Etude No. 4, Op. 10.

The hardest part about this was juggling all the obstacles life threw at me in this journey and trying to balance school with my social life. I’ve spent less time with friends and family than I ever have so I could focus on school. There’s definitely some guilt associated with that, but I’ve told everyone I will pay them back in double for the time missed. For anything great, there’s going to be some sacrifice and pain that comes with it. Just keep pushing and stay focused on the dream.

What I love about this profession is the pride and joy it brings me. I absolutely love telling people what I do and how great it is. People are so fascinated and curious by this career choice and are always asking me to explain more about it. I look at that as further confirmation that I chose a great path.

How Do You Start Over?

Here’s some things you can do to start the process of finding that dream job.

First, find out what your skills are and what you’re good at or have passions for. If you want a job that doesn’t feel like work, it’s a good idea to find something you’re passionate about. You can start by making a list of things you have liked doing in life or have been told that you are good at. Leave nothing out, because you’ll be surprised to find there are jobs for EVERYTHING.
Once you’ve thought about your skills, take a career assessment test to get some ideas of jobs that might suit you. It may give you job ideas you never knew existed or ever thought about. Like I said, I would have never thought about court reporting if the assessments didn’t bring it up. And now everyone says they can definitely see me being a court reporter.
Make a separate list for what exactly you want out of a job. Just like the list you have of your future husband or dream car! You can’t find something if you don’t know what you’re looking for, and we should have high standards for all of these areas in life.
Once you’ve got some ideas of jobs and an outline of what you expect in a job, start researching those ideas. Look for salaries that meet your expectations, employee satisfaction rates from real statistics, job demand trends, research education for those jobs, and ask real people in those fields what they like and don’t like about their jobs.
Lastly, see if there are any free courses out there to try out to see if you’d like a particular job. I was very lucky to find out that there were a couple of free online courses that teach the basics of court reporting and what it involves.
You can rinse and repeat these steps until you find something that captures your interest and leads you to the perfect career!

In Summary,

After a couple of years of quiet transformation, I am so happy to bring you this series, Starting Over On Purpose, about my journey to finding a new path in life. Hopefully, this series will help someone to make that push towards their dream and purpose. You may have to go through those seasons of grief, uncertainty, and searching as I did, and I’m here to testify that it was all worth it.

I hope you all enjoyed learning the emotional beginning of that journey, the practical steps I took to find this path, and the lessons I’ve learned throughout. One thing I want to emphasize in this series is that it is never too late to start over and find a new purpose. There are so many court reporters I’ve met that started this profession in their mid 30s,40s, 50s, and 60s that have said they have no regrets. We only get one life. Why not chase as many dreams as we can in the little time we have?

I want to hear from you guys! Let me know down in the comments if you could relate to this post or what career life led you to that you absolutely love. Who knows, maybe you’ll inspire someone else to join the ranks of your dream job!

I Walked Away From the Life I Planned — and Found My Purpose