It's a weird but very pleasant surprise. I haven't paid any attention to my field of expertise (IT consulting, programming, design, UX etc etc) since the day I went off to rehab 7.5 years ago. My last program I wrote back then was a counter to see how long I was smoke & cig free, how much money it saved me, and then I never looked at it again.


Sure, I had some catching up to do (reading mostly), but it was amazing how quickly it all came back, and in the mean time I've finished a few smaller projects to great success, leading to more projects as well.


I honestly thought 57 was way too old to start again, especially in such a fast moving field, after such a long hiatus (and after battling an addiction). But the skills to navigate those fields are still there, are still just as valid, and being a house-man for 7 years has given me new energy in some weird way, like I only took an extended brain-vacation to load up the batteries.


ANd it's not just the money (I earned as much in one month (November) as I normally do in 10 months), it's also the realisation that recovery is an ongoing thing, and somehow this feels like the final stage of really getting back on the horse, and dealing with the PN as just a slight disadvantage instead of it being the center of my world.



So yeah, I'm pretty stoked.