-The third fear deals with our own personal fears of identity and the memory of our community. If we decide to stop being a programmer will that somehow erase a part of our identity? Will our community stop identifying us as a programmer and will we lose contact with folks that have become friends and colleagues? Again, this fear is tricky to overcome because programming may be a large part of the identity you have crafted for yourself. Letting go of programming can lead to feeling like you're stripping away a piece of yourself and your identity. There's also the fear that folks will stop calling you for jobs or other programming projects if you decide to take a temporary break from programming. If the break is temporary will people remember your programming skills when you decide to return?
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-Each of these fears and worries are valid to have, but they may not be the truth. We can be afraid that we wasted our time as a programmer, but the truth is any learning isn't wasted effort. We can worry how others perceive us or how the organizations we were a part of move on without us, but the truth is we can't control their perceptions and actions. What we can control is our participation in each of these communities and our perception of the time end effort invested. We can determine if a hard break from programming would be better than gradually easing ourselves out of our commitments. We can clarify to others what our current status as a programmer is and if this status is permanent or temporary. The most important thing is not letting others persuade us into doing something that we don't want to do or is harmful to us. If we need to stop programming because we are emotionally drained and burned out then we need to make it clear to others that we will be doing a disservice to them and ourselves if we continue.
+Each of these fears and worries are valid, but they may not be the truth. We can be afraid that we wasted our time as a programmer, but the truth is any learning isn't wasted effort. We can worry how others perceive us or how the organizations we were a part of move on without us, but the truth is we can't control their perceptions and actions. What we can control is our participation in each of these communities and our perception of the time end effort invested. We can determine if a hard break from programming would be better than gradually easing ourselves out of our commitments. We can clarify to others what our current status as a programmer is and determine if this status is temporary or permanent. The most important thing is not letting others persuade us into doing something that we don't want to do or is harmful to us. If we need to stop programming because we are emotionally drained and burned out then we need to make it clear to others that we will be doing a disservice to them and ourselves if we continue.