It’s been over a year since I wrote Fetch the Bolt Cutters. Or, as it was called in Technical.ly Philly, Why I left my software engineering career to prioritize my health. I didn’t love the title, but the editor had asked if she could call it Why I left my career for ballroom dance (I’d mentioned dance in my newsletter). I wasn’t ready to share that part of my life with the tech/full blog/Internet audience quite yet.

The dance turn? That story begins before I quit my job in August 2021.

That summer there were so many articles about the great resignation. I thought, if everyone is quitting, then everyone is hiring. I started looking for random jobs. I applied to Ballroom dance instructors, will train.

Dance away from the keyboard

In my cover letter, I referenced past experience as a yoga teacher (over ten years ago, but who’s counting), and talked up my teaching experience. The dance studio agreed to take me on as a trainee. I started going three times a week while I still had my day job. Failure mode would be that I got a bunch of free dance lessons.

Then I quit the day job. I was still in terrible pain from headaches and light sensitivity. The symptoms didn’t go away as quickly as I hoped (only a month, I thought. Guh). Some other trainees started at the dance studio.

In the fall I took on my first students, an engaged couple. I mostly teach wedding couples their first dance; I’m starting to have more social dancing students and I love that. 

Wedding couples come in with no experience, and I teach them how to dance depending on skill level and how much they want to put into it. I felt so tender about this at first. Who was I to teach them? It took a whil