Starting From Scratch

It’s an odd feeling to start out fresh again, it’s uncomfortable, and sometimes disheartening but at the same time exciting. I’m just about wrapped up with my time at The Firehose Project and about ready to start a new career as a full stack web developer. Having to start out on a new career path means I’m starting out at square one, again. For many people starting out from scratch is a difficult thing to do and that’s why many of us tend to stay in the same jobs, even if we hate them, for far too long. For me starting out is still painful and tortuous but for some reason when I want something I dive in 100% without spending too much time on thinking about how difficult it will be to start from scratch again.

For many people new beginnings are them starting at square one and trying to progress down their new path. I look at new beginnings as not square one restarts but slight setbacks from my current position. Yes I may be taking a few steps back but I’m not starting from square one, all of my experiences up to this point will help me in tackling the next new challenge. We never really ever truly start from square one because of this very reason. Except for birth or for the rare exception of having permanent amnesia, we never start from square one, our life experiences assist us in starting over. When we start over and you pay attention you will notice something, it’s not as scary as you may have thought before. In fact it’s not all that bad, sure you may face some rejection or you will have to slave over polishing up your dusty old resume and cover letters or flat out redoing them completely (which from current experience is grueling) but if you keep positive and take each of the negative experiences and make them work for you the process becomes relatively painless and highly rewarding.

Just starting out on this new path I already know I will face rejection and push back, many people will not want to give me a shot and that’s fine, it’s their loss not mine. For me it’s all a positive experience, a life lesson in what and what not to do in future endeavours. I’ve worked very hard to get to where I am today, I’ve overcome many hard times in my life, and on some days I feel like my whole life the world has been resisting and pushing me back but none of that will stop me, ever. I know the work I have put into the pursuit of a happy and successful life will pay off in the long run. I stopped years ago looking at my life as a sprint race to the end and started looking at it as a paced marathon with long term ambitious goals.

Starting a new chapter is not always easy, in fact most times there is some very painful new beginnings but eventually those beginnings subside and give way to a promising future and a happy life. The path to winning a happy life is to never give up on what you are trying to attain. The minute we start accepting defeat and allowing negative responses to that defeat is the moment in which we gave in to the difficulties that is a new life and accepted the status quo. Everything is a lesson, every new beginning is never truly a square zero start point, and every time we accept that we will falter and fail is an opportunity to grow in a positive way and forge our lives into that happy and successful life we all deserve.