It’s been four years since my last post. Why is that? The easy (and cop out) answer is that I’ve been busy with life, and this blog has not been my priority. So why have I returned now? It’s part of my effort to restore the ever sought after “work life balance.” What the heck is that anyway? As hokey as it sounds, it’s what I’ve spent the past 16 months searching for. Since my last post, I’ve changed jobs 3 times, went back to school, and have been on probably a dozen trips, including my first trip to Japan. I also found myself getting much more involved in political activities than I ever imagined possible.
Until last year, work ruled my life. I’m not complaining. Since 2001, I’ve had jobs that I’ve absolutely loved — I know most people can’t say the same. But, work was really my life. My work friends became my personal friends. I easily spent at least a quarter of the year working 60+ hours per week. And I loved it. But, after losing a job that I loved because the person I worked for lost an election, I did some soul searching. Maybe this was my chance to do something I’d dreamed of for years, like going back to school. Or maybe I should find a different career path. I ended up getting a job that gave me an opportunity to work with someone I admired and not-so-secretly wanted to work for. But somehow, that wasn’t enough, and six months later I found myself going through somewhat of a midlife crisis. As much as I loved working with that elected official, I decided I needed to really think about what I wanted to do, and I quit my job without having anything lined up. Some people might think that was reckless. For me, it was something I needed to do to save my sanity.
So what did I do after I quit? The first thing I did was take a 10 day trip to Japan, which was life changing. Then, I applied for grad school. I also started exercising regularly, with a weekly Pilates session and walking several times a week. I spent a lot of time with friends. I spent time talking to people about different job opportunities. Because I was unemployed, it gave my mind the freedom to think about ALL types of opportunities, and not just pigeonholing my thoughts to staying with state government. It forced me to really think about the qualities I really wanted in a career. I had time to think about what I valued, I came to the realization that most of my adult life has been dedicated to activities where I felt I could be of service to others and have meaningful impact. In the end, I went back to state government in a position where I could contribute to positive, widespread change, but in a pretty different area than what I’d been doing for the past 15 years. I also got into grad school. And now, I’m trying to adjust things to incorporate other things back into my life (especially health and fitness, but also my creative outlet such as this blog) and thinking about what I can and should unload.
Why am I sharing this here? Partly because I enjoy writing. But mostly, I hope that it can help others.
