I don't think any huge life change is really unexpected. The discontent with things as they are can lurk under the surface for years, festering and bloating and building, but held down by personal inertia and by you thinking you have to fulfill the expectations of others, and money. Until one day this discontent gets so big that it breaks through the surface into plain view and you realize you can't go on that way anymore, and everybody says "Wow, what a shock."
I had a good paying career in high tech for a number of years, but got disenchanted with it. At first I felt like the work as I was doing was worthwhile, and it was, but after a while most of the good got sucked away and the high tech corporate environment grew more toxic.
When I got laid off last year (I had plans to quit in six months anyway), the job market for my specialty sucked. I talked to a career counselor who said that I might get back in the game if I a) groveled and b) pretended to be a different person than I actually was. For a job I no longer liked? Screw that. So I started looking at different careers and took a part-time teacher aide job to see if I'd like it. Well I loved it, and now I'm enrolled in a credential program which is going to work my ass to death and get me an MA and a teaching credential by this time next year.
Unexpected? The teaching part, yes. I never worked with kids before. But I knew I couldn't go on the way I was, and so did my wife. The only surprise lay in the direction I chose.
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