THE COMFORT ZONE

Hi, my name is Demetrius. At 45 years of age and after thirty years of working in the retail industry I have decided it is time for a career change. The lifestyle of a retail worker rarely affords you the opportunity to take a weekend trip, join in on family gatherings or attend any holiday related functions. The times those functions are usually held are during the busiest times of the year for retail: holidays, evenings and weekends. Christmas is the one holiday that we consistently have off since its the one day a year that even most retailers shut down. Most of my family is off weekends and holidays so a lot of gatherings over the years have occurred during those times that I cannot attend. With the low level of compensation most vacations are spent just not being at work. The more I enjoyed just not being at work the more I realized it was time for a change.

Change is exceedingly difficult for me. I have settled into a routine of mediocrity whose ruts are so deep that the wheels are now axle deep. I am in a comfort zone decades in the making. There have been a few times over the years where I attempted to extricate myself only to have the wheels ride up the walls a bit for a couple of months only to come sliding back down. I was comfortable with what I did for a living still even if I wasn’t happy with the compensation or times I was off because I knew what I was doing and am good at it that my job is never really in jeopardy. The job has no real mental challenge to it anymore since most of the functions I used to perform are now dictated by someone from the corporate office.

I used to be the one that made decisions about display layouts and the products that would go on them. I used to write the schedules and orders. Technology now writes schedules and orders for me. Corporate now has a one size fits all mantra about what displays go where. My job has now been dwindled down to simply being an exercise in how much faster can I physically do the job today than I did yesterday. Its still very comfortable but immeasurably boring.

My previous attempt for a change was in 2014/2015 when I started an Associates Degree in Cybersecurity. I wanted to start into IT and felt that network and data security would only become more important in the future. I knew how to build computers myself and computer networking has always intrigued me in how it works. I completed roughly three semesters of work that included the four classes of CCNA, one of Cisco’s entry level certifications about the basics of networking.

I wasn’t familiar with certifications and the value they had for someone starting out in the field. It turns out that a degree helps but isn’t strictly necessary. Obtaining a certification that keeps up with a fast changing industry has more value it seems. I cannot kick myself enough for not taking the vouchers that were offered to take the cert. I thought I was after a degree, not a cert, so I continued to take classes when I could and regret never taking that certification test then.

Due to financing, my availability to take classes, and the availability of the classes themselves, I never finished obtaining that degree. That was when the wheels riding up the walls of my ruts slid back down for several more years. I have decided after a bit of research to obtain the new CCNA through self taught means and am determined that the wheels will ride the walls up and over the top this time.

I don’t know that I will ever be able to fully convey just how high the level of comfort my comfort zone has reached. Following and watching the content from network engineers that share their knowledge for free has me more motivated to actually achieve my goal of transitioning to IT than ever before. That journey began again in September 2022 and I hope it culminates in the first step being completed August 2023.