A Season of Change


"Seasons change and so do we."

Hello old friends. Your weary author is back and change has finally smiled upon me, but first, let's catch up.

The last time you heard from me, I was in the throes of May. I had taken a fun trip during a long weekend to Denver and was busy preparing for a big adventure...




...to the Appalachian Trail! Fulfilling a lifelong dream and a goal that my BFF Amy and I shared for the arrival of our 50th year, we flew to Roanoke, Virginia, on June 4th to spend a week backpack camping and hiking the AT. The first two days were great - tough, but great - until fate had other plans for me.

On the third morning, I woke up with a terrible cold/flu that derailed our plans, our trip, and my health for the next three and a half weeks. While it sucked for me, it sucked more for Amy who was healthy and had trained so hard for the reality of the AT. My sickness sidelined us both and I felt bad, both physically and mentally. Still, I do have pictures and stories from my time there, so I will make a post about it sometime soon.

I started to feel better right before the 4th of July weekend, only to be struck down with the flu on July 5th where I spent a solid week and a half either sick or weak. Fortunately, I fully recovered from my illnesses - you don't realize how much something affects you until you feel better. It's an understatement to say how great I feel.


Now, for the changes...




I've finally walked to the long, hard road home.

Two years ago, I was working my ass off, trying to get out of a crappy marriage, paying off a mountain of debt, and finding a new happy home for my daughter and myself. Through my hard work, I accomplished all of it in April of last year and even bought myself a brand new car in July of last year so I could resume my life of adventure. It should have been a wonderful new beginning, right? Well, it wasn't.

See, right around the same time, I was dealing with two awful realities. First, the job that I had loved going to every day had become a place I hated. Secondly, my daughter was suffering greatly from a mental health crisis. While I'm not going to delve into the details of either, it's safe to say that my new life was on hold because of these two things. 

Things have finally turned a corner. After a lot of hard work, my daughter is doing well, and...I moved on to a new position with the local University I work for. In fact, I went back to the first department I worked in, a place where I loved all my coworkers dearly - just not the job itself. This time, I've moved into a different position there and it feels great to be back in a place where I love the people and I'm happy. It's been a few weeks now and as if life wanted to sweeten the deal, my old lunch buddy showed up yesterday to have lunch with me. 

Life is good again. Life is where it should be, and I finally feel like I can begin the new chapter that I so desperately longed for a few years ago.

I have arrived, and I am ready.





It's not just a new day, but a new life I spy on the horizon and I couldn't be more happy or content than I am right now. Well, that's probably not true, but it sure feels like it.

In honor of it all, I have some fun stuff planned for the rest of this amazing year. I have a new return trip to the West coast (finally!) to visit my bestie; I have a weekend planned with another bestie to go to my beloved Kansas City Renaissance Festival in October (the best month of the year), and I'm finally going to work on my new Nebraska Wine Passport - even if it won't be with quite the zeal of last year's. 

I've also been earnestly writing again, something I will talk about in another post.

Lots of things are happening, so stay tuned!



Until then, have a great rest of your week, and I'll be posting soon.

-H.A.




 

 

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