Don't Be Afraid to Change Course

Only two and a half years ago, I thought I would be at the University of Miami for life. I had been there since May 2000 and was coming up on 20 years of service there. I wasn't necessarily happy, but I am not big on change–so I resigned myself to the idea that this would be the only job I would ever hold.

Until it wasn't.

In early 2020, I saw a job advertisement for a position at the University of Texas at Austin. It looked like a good fit for me, so I applied. About a month later, I received an email asking for a Zoom interview. That was encouraging–except that there was a huge traffic backup on my way to my office, and I had to pull off the highway and conduct the interview in a parking lot using my cell phone hotspot. There's no way I'm getting this job, I thought.

Surprisingly, the search committee invited me to Austin for an on-campus interview in April. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and the world shut down. I wound up interviewing from my home office, with my kids screaming and my dogs barking while I was giving my job talk. Again, there was no way I was getting this job.

For six weeks, I thought I was right. No one called or emailed me. I figured the job had gone to someone else. Then, out of nowhere, on May 15th, I received an email from the search chair. He wanted to talk right away. So I gave him my number, and he called me. He was offering me the job! I felt like jumping out of my skin!

Then came the reality of making a professional move at almost 50 years of age, with a family, and after 20 years at the same institution. We had to look for a house, my kids had to leave their friend groups, and my wife had to close the business she had been operating for almost 10 years. No wonder moving is listed as the second-worst life stressor, behind only losing one's spouse!

Fast forward two years. My older daughter is going into her second year of college, and my younger one is thriving at her new high school. My wife is pursuing her lifelong dream of becoming a forensic scientist–something she would never have been able to do had she still been running her business. And I am succeeding beyond my wildest dreams at the University of Texas.

The move has been a net positive for us as a family–and the intense pressure I was experiencing at the medical school in Miami has been replaced with a sense of comfort, relief, and the community at the College of Education in Texas. Sure, we left close family members behind in Florida, and that was (and still is) difficult, but this was a move that we had to make. For someone like me who doesn't handle change well, this change has been amazing.

So what is the lesson here? Sometimes change is necessary. Staying on the same path just because it's familiar can often be stifling. Life is about adjusting to shifting circumstances. Just because you've been doing something for a long time doesn't mean you have to keep doing it. Sometimes life opens a door, and you have to muster up the courage to walk through it.

A lot of my research is on immigration, and I marvel at how so many people can relocate to a new country and start their lives all over again. Yesterday I was reading about the Huerta family, who were highly educated and working good jobs in Venezuela 10 years ago. Then the country fell into disarray, and the family was being threatened by government militias and their jobs were gone.

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The Huertas picked up and moved to Tampa, where they have reestablished their lives. Sure, learning a new language and adjusting to a new country wasn't easy–but the Huerta family members don't regret their move at all. It was the right–and only–decision for them to make.

I'm not equating my move from Florida to Texas with the Huerta family escaping a crumbling nation. I'm using two examples to illustrate how change is often necessary. Even if you are not being threatened by militias and losing your job, sometimes you have to step away from what is familiar to you and try something new. Chances are you will be happy you took that risk.