Thursday, August 6, 2009

A change of direction…

As of yesterday, Wednesday, August 5th, I had my last interview.  Even though I had my mind made up on accepting the AmeriCorps position, I went to this interview because I didn’t want to burn any bridges.  But I also made sure I didn’t set any other interviews up.  Which on Tuesday, August 4th, I received three calls for interviews.  Which, of course, I told them I accepted another position.  My heart is pretty set on the AmeriCorps position.  There are a lot of great pros for taking this position.  Like, for example:  1)  Federal employee experience status – after working with AmeriCorps, this position will give me federal status which down the road will open up a whole another job area for me when I start job searching again.  2)  new experience in a new field – I feel that this job is giving me a new direction in my life.  3)  Volunteering will make a huge impact on my resume.  4)  The year time frame will help me work on personals issues I have that will set me for the rest of the life, so this last year or almost two years won’t happen again.  So, no matter what happens with this latest job interview, I’m already know in my mind that I’m not going to accept the position.  With that said and the interviews portion over, I can change the direction that I’m going in.

That new direction is to now start finding a place to live.  Theoretically, I would like to move into a new place by September 1st.  But really starting to think it might be middle to late September.  I would like to find a place either in Newport or maybe Covington.  Just depends on what I’m looking for.  Which I would love to be able to get rent and utilities for under $500 but I think the only way that is going to happen is if I find a person that is looking for a roommate or I find a place with somebody.  But with past experiences with roommates, this might be out of the question.  I would love to find a place for myself to live.  That would be my ultimate goal.  So, if anybody knows of a place or maybe a friend that’s looking for a roommate, please let me know.

Then once I find this place, get settled in both the new place and the job I’m going to be doing, then my next plan of action is to start on working on my personal issues.  I’m determined not to let this happened to me again.  But as I look back though, this could have been a blessing in disguise though.  Finding out that I had diabetes made a big difference in my life.  It has helped me see that I can lose weight correctly.  So, getting my own place would be a battle won itself because then I can start eating correctly again and pay attention to what I’m eating as well.  I lost a little over 80 pounds from April 2008 till October 2008.  Then from October 2008 until now, I find it very encouraging that I only gain 15 pounds back.  Normally I would gain back the weight and then double that as well.  But it’s encouraging to see that I haven’t.  Another blessing in disguise is knowing how determined I am still.  With the up and downs in my life, most people would have given up.  I was determined not too.  I will admit that there were a few times I wanted too.  When I felt like I was going too, I either took some “me” days and just cutback on what I was doing and let myself tell me when I’m ready to get back with to it.  I would do a lot of reading or researching on the internet that would give me a great idea or something and I would feel refresh to start back at what I’m doing again.  Another blessing out of this whole situation is finally giving my life a sense of direction.  Up until about a month ago, I didn’t have a direction.  I was struggling with what I wanted to.  Then about a month ago, a light came on to help me find AmeriCorps and do what I would like to do and that is using my skill set to help poverty communities and the people that live in those communities.  Once I figured that out, things went fast and now I’m very excited and feel like some weight has been taken off my shoulders.  Now, I just have to face some fallout on things that have happened in my last year or two.  But tell you what though?  Going through this situation has really showed me a lot.  It showed me things that I need to work on personally and professionally.  So, that’s what I’m planning on doing this upcoming year.

So, continue checking back more often once I find my place because then I’ll will be doing more updates more often because I will have my stuff out.  Not to mention feeling better emotionally and physically as I start the healing process.  Thank you everybody that has helped me out over the last two years.  You all know who you are!

TL