It’s five years to the day since I left the University of Northampton. On that day, encouraged by Karin, I wrote two letters. One was “To the past” and the other was “To my future”. Once I’d written them they were sealed and tied up with a length of twine that we’d used as a timeline exercise.

This morning I opened the letters and thought about how far I (we) have come in the last five years. It was emotional but life-affirming to read those words to my past and future self. I’ll not go into the details of what I wrote – they will remain private – suffice to say, some of what I wanted to do has come to pass, some has not, and things that I never imagined would be possible have taken place!

If there’s a point to this story it’s that doors move in two directions – they open and they close. Big Life Decisions like leaving academia (or any other job for that matter) are really scary but they should not hold you back. I’m happier and healthier than I was five years ago and, while I won’t pretend that leaving my professorship behind was easy or that there’s been difficult times during the past half decade, it was one of the best decisions that I ever made.

So thank you to all of my colleagues and friends who have helped me on this journey, and especially to Karin for all her support.