Leaving Lost Boys was not a clean decision.

Thirteen years of students, relationships, and work built inside a structure I had given most of my professional life to. Letting go of that was not simple, and it wasn't supposed to be. The difficulty was proportional to how much it had meant.

What I've come to understand is that the hardness of letting go is not a signal to stop. It's confirmation that what you're releasing was real. If it had been easy to walk away from, it probably wasn't worth staying for as long as you did.

The artists I've watched make significant transitions in their careers, leaving studios, changing disciplines, stepping away from work that had defined them for years almost all described the same thing. It was harder than they expected, and worth it in ways they couldn't have anticipated from where they were standing.

Difficulty and wrongness are not the same thing. Some of the most important moves you will make in your career will also be the hardest ones to make.