Editor’s Note: Elisabeth Coleman is a New York-based writer who has been published in The New York Times Sunday Magazine, Columbia Journalism Review, Shambhala Sun and other places. She was a correspondent for Newsweek magazine and ABC News and Press Secretary to California Governor Jerry Brown, after which she started her own PR and production company. Elisabeth was Vice President for International Communications for a global Fortune 500 company. She is writing a memoir.

A few years ago, I left what many would consider a glamorous job as vice president of international communications at a global financial services company. It was a demanding, high-pressure, sleep-depriving job and I had done it for well over a decade. I had flown and worked all over the world, and lived in Hong Kong for two years where I supervised a group of 30 communications people in Asia-Pacific.

Tough work, but the issues were interesting and my colleagues were clever and often fun. I enjoyed the cachet and the visibility that came with the job: I flew on the corporate jet to the Sydney Olympics with one CEO and to Argentina with another. I climbed Machu Picchu in Peru with the Chairman and publicized many high-profile deals with leading international banks.

Before that, I was a correspondent for Newsweek and ABC News. I was California Governor Jerry Brown’s press secretary and also ran a small production business. I spent two years as a freelance magazine writer living on a farm in upstate New York with my novelist (now-ex) husband.

But when the company told me it was time to wrap it up, I was actually relieved. I had been there long enough. I had survived 9/11 — my office was right across from Ground Zero — and it had taken its toll on me. I wanted to tackle some personal projects while I was still young enough to do so.

I did my homework on what next to look out for. The literature told me to: have a good financial plan (I did); have a positive outlook (did); exercise (did); and eat right (didn’t). I was to get a new hobby (aaargh) and become a volunteer (right, later).