I'm Adeli Mone and this is the Sloan-in.

I've been thinking of what folks are calling the Great Resignation, lately, or the Big

Quit. Nearly 20 million people quit their jobs in the second half of 2021, and many people

I know personally are rethinking what it means to find not just a job they like, but a job

that aligns with their greater purpose. I can't help but feel like there is a fundamental

shift happening in terms of how we think about work, careers, and how they fuel our lives.

I think the pandemic has caused a sort of awakening when it comes to how we spend our time,

who we spend it with, and what sort of life we want to carve out for ourselves.

I still remember when I quit my job in 2010. For me, the realization that I wanted a new life

also came at a time of a great upheaval. It wasn't a global pandemic, but it was spurred on by the

death of my stepmother at 51. Watching someone so young, lose their life to cancer, puts things

in perspective really fast. She died in February 2010, and just over six months later, I left my

good job at a beloved magazine. After I said my tearful goodbyes to my dear friends and colleagues,

I remember standing in Times Square and feeling like I was about to jump off the high dive.

I was terrified and elated all at once. I had a plan to write a book, a place to live for a while

in my hometown, but hardly any savings and no idea what was next. Times Square had just set up

tables and chairs in the middle of the intersection of 42nd and Broadway, and folks were sitting

around and laughing, and everyone looked so free. I walked to the subway station and sat on the

train and cried. I knew I was doing the right thing, but my whole life had been trying to find

some security, and in one fell swoop, I had thrown all the security away. I know now that I wouldn't

take it back for anything. I know now I was choosing myself over anything else. Today's poem

is a contemplation on what it is to feel free, to escape your expected life for one minute,

...