WRY BREAD: A Slice of My Life in Pursuit of Dough

Is the ‘Road Less Traveled’ Getting More Crowded? 

By Gail Harlow 

peeding to work, in a rush to catch my train, I glimpsed a street sign out of the corner of my eye: "Birchrunville 2 miles," it said, and an arrow pointed down a narrow country lane. It was a road I’d noticed before, its seedy, off-the-beaten-track quality whispering to me to slow down, make a left turn, take a detour and explore new territory. The moment was fleeting—as dreamlike as any roadside distraction seems to a driver behind the wheel of her car, as she pushes the speed limit, thinking about the challenges and annoyances that await when she arrives at the office.

            But for me on that morning, that sign started me thinking about roads less traveled, journeys not taken and destinations deferred. It brought to mind some of the brave women I know who refused to settle for the ruts they’d found themselves in, who listened to the whispers—those inner voices urging them to try something new. Just the day before, I’d heard from Dawn, who had been unhappy in a job that didn’t challenge her or utilize her talents well. After a year of looking for something else, she finally found a position that thrills her.  It’s “the start of a creative career and is much more aligned to ‘feeding me’ because it gives me the opportunity to ‘feed others’ in a way that is much more important than pushing papers around,” she wrote to me.

           I’ve heard friends speak about that hunger before. Another wonderful woman, Susan, who’d been a talented and respected editor for various national magazines in New York for years, decided her life would be more meaningful as a reading teacher, so she went back to school to realize that dream. Sharon, a lawyer friend of mine, recently decided to cut back from five to four days on the job, so that she will have time to devote to her family and to herself and her dream of writing a novel. Sande walked away from a lucrative corporate career to open a ground-breaking art gallery, and Mary Ellen left the art department of a national magazine to create and license her own designs.

          Many of these women took pay cuts to follow their passions. One or two later became wealthier than they had ever hoped. But even when there was a huge financial payoff, money wasn’t the driving force for change. They were hungry for an inner satisfaction and creative challenges that their old jobs simply didn’t offer them.

          I admire these women enormously for the courage they have to go after what makes them happy. They are my guides as I begin my own scary journey as editor of this Web site about women and money. Though I drive down the same road I used to take to get to the paying job I left to create this Web site, I don’t really know where the road will lead. I don’t have all the answers about money management, but I do have a lot of questions. I invite you to come along for the ride. And if you’re feeling unfulfilled in the job you find yourself in today, I hope you’ll begin searching for another road to your occupational Shangri-La.

         I can hear it now: the chatty drive-time reporter on AM radio announcing a traffic jam on the road less traveled. That would be all of us women finally deciding to go after what we really want!

_________________________________

Gail Harlow is the Founding Editor of MAKING BREAD: The Magazine for Women Who Need Dough. E-mail her at gail@makingbreadmagazine.com with your comments.

E-mail this article.