Getting fired might have been the best thing to happen to me in a while

I got fired last week.

I’m 24 and I’ve had a rough start since I graduated college at 21. I was a geology major. First few months post college was in a chemistry lab for a large company. This place was an OSHA violation. I was working with hazardous chemicals with no ventilation or fume hoods. I quit that job for my own health.

Then I began my first career job as a geologist in environmental consulting (investigation remediation side). I stayed there two years. I always had plenty of work and never had performance issues. I however was incredibly miserable. I dealt with harassment, and increasing back and neck pain from the nature of desk work. I thought at the time the muscle tightness was primarily due to stress. I really wanted the pain to stop, and I wanted to find a better culture fit.

I quit that job then made a lateral move to another consulting job. This job was 100% desk work (as opposed to my previous consulting job that was partly field work). I learned quickly that my musculoskeletal issues were solely due to desk work and not stress. Within a month of this job, my neck tightness got worse, and I developed an l5s1 disc bulge. No amount of ergonomic fixes, pt or steroid shots helped. I was in so much pain. Combine this with a micromanaging boss, and I crashed. Big time. I only lasted there a year. I was fired last week.

I’m not even really upset even though I’m still in pain, and lost my income. My health and sanity comes first. I have a path towards getting better now and I have money in savings to keep me afloat. I’ve been in constant pain for nearly 2.5 years and I haven’t been able to work out in a year in a half. I went from a healthy 21 year old to this. In 3 years.

I’m switching to a career that doesn’t involve much desk work. Environmental consulting was a bad fit for me any way. The utilization rate and budget stress, the damn timesheets, the unpredictable schedules with field work and exposure to carcinogens. It wore on me. Back pain just pushed me out faster and I think that’s a blessing in disguise.

Oh and I found out I have sleep apnea .. so guess who’s spending their unemployment learning how to sleep with a cpap machine.