I found myself in the city I spend a couple of months three years ago. I was supervising a field test of water treatment products at a local power plant. I managed to retain this challenging customer.

It's been three years. I witnessed a salary increase back then; there were some annual increases thereafter.

I was promoted half a year ago.

I'm turning 29 in a couple of weeks.

The pay leaves a bit to be desired; at least, sometimes it takes only ten fingers to count my monthly workload. Besides, nobody's meddling with the way I do things or tracking my time or what not.

I don't want to continue this line of work, nor does it seem like it's going to be immutable. The ongoing situation is bound to make everything go haywire.

Is this comfort I couldn't have dreamt of hampering my development?

This is not to say that I just waste my time and idle it all away. I'm actively trying to learn new things; I'm still dabbling in data science; I had a couple of job interviews. Yes, I failed, but the offers seem to have been trickling in. Perhaps, I'm on the right track.

With the ongoing situation, it's better than nothing.

I never planned to live in a totalitarian state waging "a special operation" against a neighboring country, ffs.