Thursday, May 22, 2014

If life doesn't quite provide you with lemons for lemonade....

When I got married two and half years ago I was smack dab in the middle of earning my Masters in Direct Practice Social Work. Most of my fellow classmates were so excited to start their careers after finishing their respective internships and graduation; I however, was not. Why you may ask? Because my wonderful new husband's job was 200 miles south of where we were living at the time... this meant any Social Work jobs/ dreams I had for Phoenix were out the window.

So after I graduated and moved south, I just transferred with the job I had already had for the previous five years. This job had gotten me through college and had never been planned to be THE job, but hey, it was a job and I figured it would at least be a check until I found a SW job in Tucson. This however never happened....

It has been a little over two years now that I've lived down here with my hubby and SW jobs never came to my plate for many little reasons that played out over the two year course:
My (at the time of transferring) part time job became a full-time one and ended up taking up ALOT of my time and energy. The idea and desire for Social Work slowly went to the wayside and I started really concentrating on the company that I had transferred with. This lead to me dedicating my time and efforts to being promoted into management positions and had even kind of convinced myself that this job should be my career.  I wanted to convince myself that this job had become more important then what I had gone to school for.

Except something inside me kept nagging that this wasn't working. I found I wasn't happy most of the time: I rarely got to see my amazing husband because of our conflicting schedules, I had the same issue for mine and his family, the connections and friends that I had had when I lived in Phoenix just wasn't the same, I even didn't go to church for over year because of the schedule! I was becoming a very depressed and unhappy person and for those of you who know me... that just isn't me. My love of relationships with people were suffering and I was miserable.

Finally in the beginning of this year my hubby and I found a church that we really loved going to. We took a class there together and started making friends and making HEALTHY connections. For a couple hours each week I was my old self: happy, confident, excited. Most importantly my relationship with my hubby and God were back on track.

BUT and this is a BIG BUT... any time I went back to work I would revert to my miserable self. I hated getting up in the morning and driving to work. There was a role change at work and I was put on special projects and that was nice for a little bit. I focused on new things, but still I had the same feeling when I woke up in the morning.

So after much prayer and council from family, and my hubby I put my two week notice in this week. After seven years and a month of working for a great company I am ready to refocus. Now the question comes up from everyone: what will you do next Bre??? well to be honest I'm not quite sure yet. I always have my Masters to fall back on (I am a little rusty with the clinical aspect of it but I can brush up) but for now I'm going to finish the MANY things I haven't gotten to in the last two years since moving here.

So on this blog I will document as always my photo shoots I do, but I am going to be adding a new element of my life. I will show house organization, cleaning, meal planning, budget planning some (I took Dave Ramsey's class), any cool projects my hubby and I take on, and travels we do (we still haven't had a honey moon!) Hey and maybe sometime I'll even be blessed with a little one and I can document that exciting adventure as well!

So until then I would just like to document first that I think this is the LONGEST blog (especially without pictures!) I've ever written. Also I would like to thank my family for their support and guidance these last few months and the continued support I will get as this new journey in life happens for me. And finally to answer my post title: If life doesn't quite provide me with lemons for lemonade... then I of course realize that I'm not the biggest fan of lemonade in summer any way! I grab a watermelon and eat that instead!... on a picnic, with my hubby, and dog. :)

Until nent time, thanks so much!
-Bre