I am long overdue for an updated post and there’s no better time than the present. When I created Connecting Families I took a leap I had been ready to take for quite some time. Little did I know it was only the beginning.
As a lifelong anxious person, I have learned to manage my anxiety with structure and routine. As an educator, summer always proves to be a difficult time. While I always appreciate the time off and the freedom that comes with it, the extra time on my hands gives my mind a lot of time to think and make up stories. A lack of structure + copious amounts of free-time = increased anxiety. I literally felt my chest tighten as I typed that sentence. The first few weeks of June can be difficult but I typically find myself settling into a new routine and become ‘summer Neen’ as a friend used to fondly call me….a more laid back version of myself….before the end of the month.
This summer is no different however I find myself in unfamiliar territory. After 25 years in education, a career I dearly loved, I closed that chapter of my life. I have an opportunity to make a difference beyond the walls of a school building and it is one I could not turn down. However, as with anything new, we are experiencing growing pains, which leaves me with a lot of uncertainty, little structure, and no routine.
Typically, I would seek control wherever I could find it, but in the interest of change, I am choosing a different path. I won’t deny the fact that there has been an excessive amount of cleaning and organizing at my house in an attempt to find control somewhere. But more importantly, I am choosing to lean in. Leaning into the uncertainty, embracing the anxiety and allowing this journey to take the path it is meant to take. There have been a lot of sleepless nights in the last four months but in the end, I know this is the decision I was meant to make and I am excited to see where it takes me.
