searching for balance...oh, and a job too

First, thank you so much for your comments and emails and phone calls of support and encouragement (and facebook messages, too – hi Cejda!).They've meant a lot to me this past week, and I'm thankful to have such wonderful friends.

I also wanted to address in one swoop, if I may, a few common questions that have been asked. I know, I should just be a good emailer and reply to each of you individually, but the fewer times I have to write about last week's happenings, the better. So here's a quick rundown of how things in my corner of the world have been unfolding:

Just in case anyone missed the news…as of last Tuesday afternoon, I am no longer working for my fraternity. The short answer of why is that the match between the position and my abilities wasn't as strong as it needed to be; and as a result, the very basic quantitative goals of my area were not being met. Which I understood and was well aware of. Being let go was a bit of a surprise, though…and to be honest, I did feel a little blind-sided by it. However, even if I don't quite understand it (or agree with it), I'm trusting that this decision was made in the fraternity's best interests.

So as of now, I'm officially looking for a job. Originally, I'd thought of immediately taking something part-time (a la Pier One or Barnes & Noble), to keep myself busy and bring some extra money in while I search for something a little more aligned with my professional interests. After thinking it over for a couple of days, though, and taking a look at my finances, I decided on a different approach…one that gives me time to focus on two things: my job search and my mental/emotional balance.

See, for the past oh, three or four months, life has been going, going, going. If I wasn't traveling, I was focusing on the "needs to get done" stuff…those things in the office and around the house that couldn't be ignored…like laundry and professional reading and getting exercise and cleaning. Even when I was relaxing or hanging out with friends (locally or not), there was still that sense of the "want to do" part of my life being neglected…perhaps because those moments were being squished into little snippets here and there. (And no, this was not making the quest for happiness in Pa. any easier.)

In an effort to restore some of that balance, I'm going to just take the next month off. I have a couple vacations that I'm looking forward to (planned before the letting go, but thankfully still possible); I have more than enough scrapbooking projects to keep me busy; and I have a summer pool membership that will now be getting much more use than expected. This – in addition to the resume-writing, cover-letter-drafting, application-submitting process of finding a new full-time job – should be plenty to keep me occupied for a while, and yet let me take a breath of life before I jump back into the professional world.

So that's my plan, at least through June. Once July arrives, I'll take a look at how the job search is going and decide from there whether a part-time fill-in is necessary. In the meantime, I'm excited. Which seems odd, considering how upset I was last week. But more than one person has commented on what a great opportunity this is, to get to pick a new direction…and that rings truer and truer every time I hear it. In looking at what's happened and considering what I want to do from here, I feel like there are great things on the horizon…I just need to go after them.

Where I am: Pennsylvania
What I'm reading: The Dive from Clausen's Pier by Ann Packer