I started teaching in January 1998, meaning this month marks the 28th anniversary of that moment. I left the only other full-time career I’ve ever had — journalism — which I began in 1980 after finishing college. I started my first paying newspaper job in fall 1979. I reinvented myself, a topi c many of us confront as what’s billed by some as the most significant invention in human history (Bigger than fire, the wheel, gun powder, the printing press, the steam engine, the computer, the internet, etc.), is about to hit us in the collective keister. So many jobs could conceivably be wiped out, and I won’t list them here because readers in those professions surely already know. As if I need to pile on. My point today is to discuss the transformation that many of us will undergo. I chose mine almost three decades ago and I’m happy I did. Oddly, the southwest Riverside County that I’ve been writing about since the late 1980s has also undergone changes that have basically left it unrecognizable today. Many people I knew from that time have left. Many others have stayed, riding out the change, happy to still call the place home, even if the population has increased nearly tenfold. These people had to switch from rural to urban as several hundreds of thousands of newcomers poured in. Still, they seem to like the place enough to stay. Certainly, there are more things to do, places to shop and restaurants at which to eat. Murrieta didn’t even have a supermarket when I moved here and when the first fast food place opened — McDonald’s on Los Alamos Road (which is still there) — it was a big deal. Now comes the change that’ll affect all of humanity. I was at a longtime neighbor’s birthday party recently and it was a big topic of conversation: artificial intelligence and robots. Thank goodness we’re all in our 60s and 70s. Yet change can also be good. I grew up an Army brat and went to 11 different schools in my K-12 years. The first five years after college, I moved 10 times. Change, change, change … While I contemplated changing careers in the late 1990s, I had the feeling of having been there, done that, with daily journalism. Too many city council meetings will do that to you. Related Articles A first great-grandchild meets her great-grandfather for the first time Reconnecting with Murrieta teacher is full-circle moment for retired teacher New book covers the story of Temecula-Murrieta land owner Walter Vail Robotics program at Murrieta middle school offers lessons on the future This Temecula man is a ‘Rob of all trades’ I’m lucky to have negotiated a deal with this newspaper that lets me continue writing this column on a freelance basis. And I can count on one hand the number of city council meetings I’ve been to since 1998. I also wrote about my transformation 28 years ago when I started it: “As for the obstacles presented by a career change, I don’t have time. The pay cut, the prospect of starting at the bottom of a new career ladder, the responsibility of providing for a family, the fear of trading something I love for something I’m still learning how to do … “Yes, there’s no shortage of reasons not to change careers. “But because I’m not thinking of it in those terms, I’m not looking back. It’s full speed ahead, the way life should be.” As workers fear what’s next as the work world shifts faster and faster, keep in mind that change can also be good. Reach Carl Love at [email protected] ...read more read less