It is okay to quit. Sometimes the semester or life, in general, can become too much. Self-care and taking the precautions to protect your mental and physical health is not selfish. Yes, others may be counting on you or leaning on you for support, but if you need to step away for a short period of time or permanently in order to ensure your own well-being, then that is the way the cookie crumbles.

I just quit one of my on-campus jobs this past Friday at the university’s archives. This was my first major quitting since leaving the track team in the middle of the season in eighth grade (which wasn’t that big of a deal anyways).

I quit because I am graduating in three months and I need time to apply for jobs and/ or internships. I need time to do homework for the five classes I am taking. I need time to take care of my animals on my small hobby farm (they miss me and I miss them). I need time to breathe.

Before telling my boss that I needed to quit, I felt terrible. Like I was going to be a disappointment for leaving her when she just hired a new student-worker. We are a small department that no one really knows about, but is still vital to the running of the university. It takes months of training and asking questions before anyone is ready to fully handle incoming questions, research, and projects by themselves. I had been in this position for four years, but it has just come time to move on. And my boss completely understood that, which was a relief!

Though I have gained many new skills and improved the ones I already had, being an archivist is not where I see myself in the future. After talking with my boss, I think we both accepted the fact that I was moving on, just as I would if I was graduating at the normal spring time instead of a semester early. I’ve really enjoyed working with my boss and coworkers, and learning an entirely new discipline I would have never known without this job. In a way, I imagine it has been an introduction to what it’s like to work for the National Archives.

With the skills I’ve gained and perfected these past four years, I hope to move on to bigger and greater things, and hopefully to something that is closer to what I actually want to be doing post-graduation. Until then, I now have time to fine tune my resume, start cover letter templates, and hone in on my job/internship search. Wish me luck!