Diana's Story

I was beginning to believe that the unhappy and downright unpleasant person who put on my clothes every morning and went to work, was the real me. My corporate job left me exhausted and listless after long, unfulfilling hours of work. Work soon became all I did, or spent time recovering from. I knew I had to make a change. But what else could I do? I’d become so submerged in this "other person" that I could not imagine being capable of doing anything other than my current job. I knew I needed help and searched the Internet for career counseling organizations, but I was looking for something different. That is when I found Centerpoint.

I was leery about what they could do for me when I tested the water with the one-day workshop, LifeWork Renewal™. The Cycles of Change model was introduced and I began to feel that maybe there was something else out there for me. I let what I’d learned in the workshop tumble around in the back of my head for six months before committing to signing up for The Retreat. As anyone who has gone to one will attest, I came away changed.

Centerpoint opened my eyes and mind to possibilities. They did not supply me with THE answer, just many wonderful questions, the best ones starting with, "What about…?" and "What if…?" With a renewed belief in possibilities, I started exploring long buried interests in photography and writing, wondering how I could combine them with my love of travel and make a life of it.

I wanted to explore cultures and traditions from the inside. I wanted to live a year or two in a place, get to know it, photograph it and write about it before moving on to a new location. I decided to make a major leap, getting rid of anything I couldn’t carry with me, take my camera, and a laptop, and head to Mexico. I started to map out an exit plan for myself.

It took me three long, patience-trying years after the Centerpoint retreat to finally leave my job on June 30, 2006. By then I had taken many classes in photography and writing, paid off bills, saved money and all that was left was to get rid of my things and go.

Even though all my passions are tied together now and I live them rather than wish I was, it’s still difficult day-to-day making a major transition. When it gets tough, the lessons I learned at Centerpoint come back to help and support me.

I keep an image in my mind from The Retreat. It is a metaphor from an Indiana Jones movie about making a leap of faith. Indy is being chased by the bad guys. Emerging out of a tunnel, he finds in front of himself a bottomless pit with no way across. The only way to cross is to put his foot out into nothingness, and only then will the bridge forward appear, not all at once, just step by step. My bridge continues to appear much like Indy’s: in ways I would never be able to plan. I just put my foot out there and see what appears.

Editor’s Note: You may view Diana’s photography and art at her website, and track her life story as she writes it on her blog.