I always love when this comes up in my Memories every year. It serves as my reminder that anything can happen in life; you just have to be brave enough to take that step.

10 years ago, I decided to quit a well-paying job in order to pack my entire life into my Ford Focus and make the cross country drive to LA, where I knew not a soul and had no job prospects lined up. It was a very scary and exciting time and, in hindsight, seems pretty stupid to pack up your life with nothing but a small pittance and a dream.

My mom crammed into that Focus with me and drove me to my destination. When she left, I remember being scared out of my wits. This was it. It was time to buck up. I felt like Kevin in Home Alone when he’s getting ready to defend his house from the Wet Bandits – “This is it. Don’t get scared now.”

There were days and nights when I felt more like Tom Hanks in Big than some semi-brave pseudo-badass that I was pretending to be. After a month and a half, my pavement pounding finally paid off and right when I needed it the most. I had landed a job at my dream studio and this victory validated my match striking. Fate would take me out of this job but lead me to another network, which ultimately led me BACK to my dream studio, to a job where I would meet some of the most wonderful people and get an inside look at the industry that I had loved for so long.

The point of sharing this story is this: if you’re unhappy and waiting to take that next step (for whatever reason), stop waiting. Strike the match on your current existence and just do it. It’s scary and it’s unnerving, but it will be worth it if you’re willing to face the fear. Everything that I have now is because of that move.

Thank goodness I didn’t talk myself out of it.