I starting burning out about 34 - I'm 44 now - and I wish I had made the effort to start transitioning. But I'm very good at forcing myself to go on death marc

I starting burning out about 34 - I'm 44 now - and I wish I had made the effort to start transitioning. But I'm very good at forcing myself to go on death marches... life got in the way and was distracting as well. The latest stupid crap has finally convinced me to really start, however. So don't procrastinate - I really hope you don't. Usually, in one's 30s, you start trying to figure out what you really want to be doing for the last half of your life. I quit my job after the first Internet bubble broke and went to film school, something I'd always wanted to do, but after film school, I decided it was "practical" to stick with IT. Writing screenplays is a little too much like programming, and it really doesn't pay as well... Anyway, such is life. What would you be doing if you suddenly became 18 again, but kept all the life knowledge you have accumulated by now? Do you feel the need to do something completely different or perhaps just something to the "left" of software development? Any sort of writing is to the left, I think, as a lot of the skills in IT are applicable to the writing process. Something different would be the acting classes I took last year - i.e. try to develop the subordinate side of your personality - more 'artistic' stuff, more feeling than the thinking. Acting actually involves a lot more analytical processes than one might think, but you still have to get in touch with one's 'feeling' side so I found it all useful. At this point, I'm starting to think seminary school sounds interesting, as it is aligned with a lot of my intellectual interests. There is a monastery in Belgium that brews beer, and they need help as demand is growing and the order is shrinking. Spending my life making beer sounds fun!