I neglected to mention one thing in my recent post about setting goals. As part of reevaluating my goals in life, I decided to quit my job. I gave my official notice on Friday, July 25th and my last day will be August 22nd. My boss had requested that I not tell anyone until a time he thought was right. Occasionally someone from work might read this blog, so I refrained from mentioning this news until now.
This September I would have been working at this same place for 8 years. While I enjoyed the work and the pay was great, I came to the realization that I just wasn't challenging myself anymore. So, rather than just go to work for another company, I've decided to try my hand at freelance work. The plan is to work on software application development. It's something I've been interested in doing and I've been trying to work on some designs recently, but I found I just didn't have the free time outside of work to dedicate to make any substantial progress. Now I'll be able to concentrate on it full time. I've got enough money saved up to cover my expenses for about a year, so hopefully within that time I can get a sense whether it'll work as a career or not.
Coincidentally, a week after I gave my notice at work, I finally heard back from Partners in Health. It's been over 3 months, so they are contacting all the past interviewees to see who is still available and interested. They are still in the process of setting up the program and I haven't heard back from them as to what the timeframe might be when they finally start this program, but I did let them know it is something I would still be interested in doing. Heck, I've already quit my job and coincidentally my current plan was to be possibly working for the next year without any income, so spending a year in Rwanda isn't as much of a big leap as it would have been 3 months ago.