I’ve always thought of myself as more of a “show me” person than a person that takes things on faith. Even though I would categorize myself as a bit of a naive person, I have always thought that the best way to look at things is based on logic and reason rather than on faith. In my new quest for the meaning of life and for some type of connection to spirituality, I have come to realize that sometimes in my life, there were times when I acted out of faith. This is a wonderful thing to discover about myself, because as I search for the answer to the question of ”What is life about?” it’s beginning to seem like Faith is a very important word.
One of the things that I have accomplished in my life took a lot of faith. That was going back to school to get a second bachelor’s degree in order to change careers. I changed careers from the field of Finance to the field of Engineering. Many people have asked why I decided to make that change. People have all kinds of opinions about it, but one thing is for certain – I could not have accomplished it if I didn’t have faith. I have thought about the faith it took and have compared it in my mind to swimming across a lake.
In the beginning, I took some night classes at the local junior college. It was a no risk way to stick my toes into the water. I worked at my job during the day and took classes at night. I did that for a few years and then I needed to move on from the junior college to the university where they offered the higher level classes that I needed to take.
Again, I was able to start doing this without much risk. I had worked at my job for several years and so my boss was willing to work with me and give me more flexible hours so that I could take a class during the day and make up the hours. I was wading into the water.
As I took more classes, you could say that I had waded into the water and had swum out to the raft. I was still not far from the shore and could easily turn back. I could stop taking classes and resume my current life without any changes and hardly any disruption.
But there came a point when I needed to take a leap of faith. I had several classes more to go, all of which were only offered during the day. It would also be wise to begin thinking of places to work where I could start getting some type of experience in the field of Engineering.
In order to finish my Engineering Degree, I would need to leave the safeness of the shallow water. There came a point when I had swam out so far into the lake that the opposite shore was the same distance as the shore I had come from. At that point, I had to take a leap of faith and let go of the shore I came from, and forge ahead to the opposite shore. Would I be too tired to finish the swim? Would the opposite shore hold what I was expecting? There is no way to answer those types questions up front, from the safety of the shallow water or the raft.
The only thing to do is not to look back and to trust in the future. The only thing to do is to have faith. That is the only way in life to make it to that opposite shore. And so I swam into the deep water until I could no longer see the shore I had come from. I concentrated on swimming to the opposite shore.
I said goodbye to those I had worked with for 10 years and left my job. I took an internship at a manufacturing company and I took the two semesters I had left of classes. 9/11 occured during my final semester in school. The economy plunged and jobs were scarce. That was the job market I entered when I obtained my degree.
Again, it took faith to get me through. I took a job through a temporary service working at a bank in the mortgage customer service area while I looked for an Engineering job. I also sent my resume to a recruiting company to find a job. Meanwhile at the temporary job, I learned skills in the customer service department regarding dealing with people that are applicable to any job. I can still use those skills today.
The person I dealt with at the recruiting company was very doubtful and told me it could take a long time to get a job. I told him of a company that I had heard of and was interested in working at. He told me there were no open positions there. I took matters into my own hands and called the company myself. The woman in Human Resources told me that there weren’t any jobs available but that some should be opening up soon. I kept in touch with the woman and sure enough I was able to interview for a position after a few months. After the interviewing process, I was offered a job. I had made it to the other shore.
There are some things that logic and reason cannot tell us. For those things, we need to trust our gut. We need to have faith.
