In 2015 I took a role in a small nutrition start-up and moved to Austin, Texas, to run their marketing.
I knew one of the founders, who’d already had some success, and thought the move might be one of the biggest opportunities I would ever have.
At the time, e-commerce start-ups looked from the outside like a money printing machine.
I had a dreamy notion that being an early hire, stock options were within reach.
It was super exciting, and I totally loved Austin. I had completed a nutrition course a few earlier, and the products we were selling were of a quality that made the nutrition nerd in me very proud.
And yet, 2015 would turn out to be one of the hardest years of my life.
Far from being the fun and fast-paced golden ticket I had expected, the work was chaotic and intensely stressful. My anxiety, which had been pretty low-grade for the last few years, bloomed into something invasive and uncontrollable.
Visa complications meant that I was alone in a huge apartment for months at a time, with just a handful of new friends to keep me company.
Back home, my grandmother was facing a dire health situation and the rest of my family were widely occupied with helping her through it.
But 2015 would also turn out to be one of the most important growth years of my life.
With all the time alone, I was faced with a choice. Turn outward, and hope other people would save me from being lonely and neurotic. Or turn inward, and start a dialogue with myself that would save me from being lonely and neurotic.
I turned inward, and I’ve never looked back.
Today’s writing reflected on that time, and I’d like to invite you, if you’re at that kind of crossroads, to see if you might be able to start a conversation with yourself that will, in time, mean that you can save yourself too.