Hello,

My name is Don Sabado. I started writing consistently about eleven months ago. My intent in writing on Medium was to market my online businesses and earn money on Medium. The most challenging part of writing on Medium was completing the About Me page.

My about me page was for information purposes only. In the eleven months of writing on Medium, I rediscovered my passion for writing. My first thought was to write to earn money on Medium, but I realized only 6% make more than $100 per month. Those would not be good numbers if I depended on Medium to pay my bills.

I've always considered myself a risk taker because I've attempted several small businesses. I was successful with my tutoring business, but I flopped on almost every other online business I've tried. The idea of calling myself a risk taker because I started and failed at several businesses was easy because I always had a safety net.

I am also a high school math teacher. I used to pat myself on the back because I stayed at one school where almost everyone I knew transferred or quit the teaching profession altogether. I convinced myself early in my career that the public school I started teaching with would be my last; I wanted to retire at the same school. I saw it as a badge of honor to remain at one school.

However, the truth was I was far from being a risk-taker. I was afraid to take a risk and start over at another school because I was comfortable in Room A2, no matter the situation. What I didn't realize was I watched my life pass me by.

There was a huge gap in years between my first girlfriend and my second girlfriend, who I broke up with several years ago. Between those two relationships, I dated many women and had no success. Because I was living in my comfort zone, at work, and in life, I convinced myself, "that's just the way it is."

I remember returning home to Kauai about a month before the start of the pandemic. It was February 2020. I saw my friend I had met several years earlier. Her family and my family on Kauai are neighbors and friends. She's younger than I am. I would visit home during summers but never started visiting home regularly until she returned to living at home with her family.

That visit home was a defining moment for me because I saw Lia during a wedding weekend; we both were helping to prepare for my cousin's wedding. I knew in my heart that she was the one. I never could shake the feeling of my friend, Lia.

I visited home again after a two year of absence because of the pandemic during the summer of 2022. When I left to return to Oahu for work, I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her.

That year before the pandemic's start, I had passed up the opportunity from the principal of my high school alma mater to be closer to my friend, Lia. The pandemic hit, and I watched time fly by. Two years later, I realized I may have messed up the opportunity to be with the woman I wanted to share my life with.

All this talk about how I thought I was a risk-taker was not the case. I was comfortable not taking a risk. Instead, I convinced myself if a marriage didn't happen for me, it was God's will. All this talk about retiring early from teaching and writing full-time was me trying to find a way out of a workplace I had grown out of and was not fond of being there.

I was afraid to take a leap of faith and start over again. I was also scared to take a leap of faith with my friend Lia for fear my relationship wouldn't work out again. I rediscovered my passion for writing on Medium, but more importantly, after my vacation home during the summer of 2022, I knew what I needed to do when I returned to work for the school year 2022 - 2023.

I know what I want.

I want Lia.

Final Thought

In my first attempt at writing an about me page, I listed my side hustles and the links to their pages.

Those are secondary to what I want. I'm content to freelance write and teach the rest of my teaching career back home on Kauai. I wasn't risk-taking. I was sitting around and being comfortable. The quote that woke me up to reality was by Lewis Carrol I read recently.

"In the end, we only regret the chances we didn't take, the relationships we were afraid to have, and the decisions we waited too long to make." - Lewis Carroll.

This school year will be my last school year at my current school after many years of teaching. I'm taking a leap of faith and returning home.

I'm not going to place any links about my side gigs on my about me page because all you need to do is google my name, Don Sabado, mathematics, and you'll see the links to my side gigs. My side gigs are a part of me, but it's not me.

If you want to read more about me, please read my pinned articles to my profile.

Thank you for reading my profile.

About Me Page - Pinned article to profile