In the end, was it worth it?

I recently returned from my friend's wedding, during which I had the opportunity to catch up with several old friends and acquaintances I hadn't communicated with in a long time. We all talked about where we are now and what we're doing. At this point, I've been out of undergrad for almost 5 years and worked for 3 different companies. All my old friends and acquaintances remarked on how well everything worked out for me. It was during this moment, I started to reminisce about the journey I went through to get here. Overall I'm not happy, not because of where I am now but because of what I had lost along the way and the impact on my mental and physical health in the process. I've had relationships that fell through because I couldn't mentally move myself to focus on that instead of work, and I've suffered under toxic managers who drove me insane with their name-calling and unreasonable expectations.

Finance as a whole can be an unforgiving industry, and despite however much ambition you think you have, the ends don't always justify the means. There are some things that money can't simply buy. For me, I don't care how much money I'm making anymore; it won't buy back what I've lost and it's not worth putting up with toxic people in my life.