Cancer the Career Killer
Cancer has ruined so many things in so many lives and it goes unmentioned. Everyone knows that cancer sucks but to what extreme? What does it look like in the life of a fighter or survivor?
Prior to my diagnosis I had plans for my career and family that look nothing like what my life resembles. I worked hard for my Bachelor’s Degree, had a job in my desired field while obtaining my degree, and planned to follow and grow on that path. Thankfully, I worked for an amazing employer that had my back during all this chaos and worked with me when it came to my return to work. Things were going so well, I was able to work part time during the time I had energy and felt decent and was able to rest when the energy faded. Then I had the life expectancy conversation with my doctors, planned the risky surgery, and went straight into worst case scenario thinking.
If I have anywhere from four days (the time between the original surgery and the scheduling of it) to ten years (the original max life expectancy) then I don’t want to spend it struggling for my good moments to be spent working for someone else. My good moments need to be spent with my friends and family or making a real difference. I took this mindset and completely flipped it to my advantage. Two days after the life expectancy conversation I picked up my phone and panic quit my job and spent days before surgery making memories with my sweet baby boy and husband. Surgery didn’t kill me, thank God, and now I needed a way to pay for all these crazy medical bills and make use of my time.
I took my career in construction accounting and my degree in business administration and combined them into getting my real estate license. My dream of climbing the corporate ladder and working with an amazing GC are down the drain for the better. I am now making a career out of helping my friends and family with some of the biggest decisions in their lives and I am loving it! I could not be more thankful for my previous career dreams and the experience I gained from it.
To be transparent, I had many days after where I mourned the loss of my career dreams. I blamed cancer for killing my career and hated myself for allowing that to happen. Realistically I know that I didn’t ask for this or plan for this but it definitely sent me down a spiral of sadness over a job. I know how silly that sounds now but in the moment it felt like my whole life was wrecked. Everything I had worked for, planned for, and achieved felt like they were destroyed now thanks to this terrible disease.
Moving past the few spiraling moments of identity loss, I tend to focus on the positive side of this terrible disease so I am taking this career killer and flipping the perspective. It may have killed my dreams of the 9-5 corporate ladder climbing but it has given a much more fulfilling career path. I am taking this warrior attitude and investing it into my role as YOUR agent and fighting for YOU! Let’s take this bad experience and make it something positive. I am here to help you with all your real estate needs now and can’t wait to flip this from you guys helping me through this to me helping you through that!
Follow along with my real estate path and get lots of tips tricks ->
@FLRealEstateWarrior on Instagram
Sydney Healey Realtor on Facebook
SydneyHealeyRealtor.com