Wednesday, June 11, 2014

On the Other Side of the Coin

Gaps mean life is happening.  Shhhh, don't disturb it because I love experiencing life.

So much has changed since November.  I'm not sure if I mentioned beforehand, but I worked as a temp back in November.  A job opened up and three weeks later, the job was over.  After that, I didn't work for about a month until another posting came up.  With that position, I was commuting an hour to work (in good weather), and in Michigan (Northern USA, for you non-US peeps), good weather was very hard to come by in January.

I hated the position.  I hated the commute.  The job was boring, with little to nothing to do.  All that kept me going was my commitment to a friend that I would be at that job.  And the money was more than a little needed.

I hated that job so much, I cried after a week while at work.  I just didn't want to do it anymore.  I just didn't know if I could handle the on again, off again status with no vacation, benefits, anything.  And then something more than a little wonderful happened...

I had applied for several jobs over the last year.  More than a few.  I started branching out in October and November when nothing was panning out.  One job was for an Administrative Assistant position for my church in a tiny little town of about 6000 people in East Texas.  I applied.  My sister is planning to move to Texas this year (she still has yet to, but I'm holding her to it), so we wouldn't be too far from family.

I heard nothing, so I assumed the position, like so many others I had applied for, was gone.

I was at the end of my rope in late January.  All the schooling, hard work, everything that I had done didn't seem to be taking me anywhere.  I prayed so much that month.  I prayed for someone, anyone to give me a chance.  I guess Heavenly Father decided to give me that chance because the day I had to turn around after 3 hours of trying to get to work, to no avail (and I had to eat all that money in gas)... that day, I received a call from a thick Texan-accented man who wanted to arrange a phone interview.

It was a deer-in-headlights moment.  I wasn't sure if I should even call back.  Texas?! What had I been thinking to apply in Texas?  And a small town in Texas at that?

With some encouragement from my husband, I called back and arranged the interview for the next day during lunch.  The whole thing was nerve-wracking to say the least.

The interview lasted the whole of my lunch and breaks, and then I went back to work.  I got a text about 3 hours after the interview to call the guy back and when I did, on my way out to the car from work, I was offered the job.

I started crying again, in a great and wonderful way.  So my husband and I had a decision to make.  Can you guess what it was?

We moved to Texas, and for a little over three months now, I've been working at my new job.  It has cool things, like a 401K, benefits, a pension plan (I didn't even know they still had those), and vacation and sick time that I could accrue over time.  It's been a crazy and wonderful year so far.

So that, in a nutshell, is where I've been.

Have I been writing?  I've been wanting to.  Desperately, especially now as I'm beginning to get settled in.  I miss it, truly.  On the up side, I've been reading a lot lately.  And I've been spending as much time as I can with my family.

I'm also working on getting back into shape, getting healthier, and getting my energy back to do what I need and want to do.

It's an adventure!  Do I feel I've lost my way in writing?  Not really.  Not really at all.

Why not?  Because life is inspiration.  You can't glean inspiration by doing nothing.  I look at this as my research and development stage.  I see this as my inspiration.  My life, my family.

Even more, I'm happy.  And I think I write better than when I'm not.  And I think I'm more receptive to the world around me, in all its glory.

As for Texas, we love it.  Sure, it's hot right now (actually, fairly mild considering what it normally is), but I feel like I'm home.  Or at least, very close to home, here.

Writing is never better than when you're at home.  At home in your surroundings, at home in your head, at home in your heart.

I'm home.