Reply #20: Not a big departure in subject matter, but a big departure in lifestyle

[Lydia Leftcoast]

I went from being a college professor with a regular salary and benefits to being a free-lance editor and translator who lives a feast-or-famine existence.

I'd been considering it for years, but I didn't actually do it until I lost my teaching job.

It was one of those "fortunate misfortunes."

Judging from what I hear from my former colleagues and other academics I know, this is not a good time to be in academia.

Although I wish my income were more predictable, I have unparalleled flexibility, and if I felt like it, I could pack up and move anywhere in the U.S. or to any country that would let me in.