Where Have I Been? Life Update

Well, well, well. Who would’ve thought you’d ever hear from me again? Not me. The last time I logged into my blog was in 2022…so where have I been? In the event that you care, or are just curious, read on!

I left advising

I left college advising at the end of 2023. I had been advising undergraduate students since 2018 and honestly I just lost interest in it. Considering that I went to grad school for the sole purpose of becoming an advisor AND I started a whole-ass blog about it, I know the loss of interest may be confusing. But after 5 years and nothing to show for it professionally (i.e. no upward mobility or increase in salary), I knew it was time to move on. I moved into an associate director role at a non-profit, specifically working in student recruitment and diversity. You didn’t think I’d leave students behind completely, did you? No, my heart will always be with students and their success – the way I accomplish that just looks a bit different now. I will say, what I did not expect was that I’d miss advising students or their late-night emails freaking out about not getting into this class or that lab – but alas, I do! I honestly miss it everyday. But for those of you who’ve been in higher ed (or those of you considering entering the field), you’ll know that there is still a lack of investment from universities in their advisors. The lack of support, professional development funds, upward mobility and livable salary make staying in advising not feasible – at least not for me.

I fell in love

Ugh, that sounds so cheesy. I’ll keep this short – I found my person. He’s patient, kind and funny. He puts up with me – what more could ya ask for?

We moved

We moved to…Florida of all places. Moving was rough. The move came on suddenly and I was not prepared. Granted, even if I was “prepared”, I wouldn’t have been prepared, ya feel me? Moving away from friends and family, to a state that gets too hot for comfort was a challenge at first. And as I described in a previous blog post, major life challenges tend to throw me off course. This was no different. I struggled with severe anxiety and depression for the first 6 months. It wasn’t until I joined a run club (ugh, exercise. I always hate when the first piece of advice to combat anxiety and depression is “Why don’t you exercise?”…Why don’t you mind your own business, Linda??), and found a yoga studio that I saw some light at the end of the tunnel. And honestly, I don’t think it was so much the actual exercise as it was finding people with common interests (take that, Linda!). Who knew having a social life would be so important?

My Rosie passed away

As if moving wasn’t hard enough, my soul dog died right before Thanksgiving 2023. She was sick and I couldn’t bear to see her suffer anymore. I miss her every day.

Duke

Right after Rosie passed, one of my sister-in-laws needed to rehome her dog. In comes Duke, a 50-something pound, 1 1/2 year old American Bully with a massive head and big-time side eye. He helped me get over Rosie’s passing. He’s our little manatee, snuggle bug, bum bum…Sorry, I got carried away there.

What’s next?

Great question. Not sure. I’ve been putting a lot of pressure on myself to figure that out and to find my purpose. Too much pressure. I think I’ll just take it day-by-day from here on out. A friend of mine reached out and said that I should focus on being purposeful in all my actions in order to live a meaningful life, rather than trying to find “the purpose” and I love that idea. Honestly, I’ve been wanting to come back to this blog for some time but always felt that too much time had passed and that no one would care. But I care and for now, that’s enough. I’m not sure if I’ll post regularly but this one post, for this one moment, is all that matters.