I. Have. Made. It.
Back in September, the crazy rat race began. When Gramercy, our nearly 12-year-old lab was diagnosed with cancer, the whackamoles started hitting. One thing after another, no slowing down, no rest for the weary.
Gramercy died and later that week my son ran his last Varsity Cross Country State Meet (he came in third). My daughter came home to visit and then boom boom boom work stuff, personal stuff, travel… it all came like a hurricane that wouldn’t stop. The trip to Africa, my husband leaving early due to an emergency with his father, the arrival of the puppy, the passing of my father-in-law and all the logistics that involved, the ice, the snowstorm on top of snowstorm, the handling of the sale of my inlaws’ home in New Jersey (ongoing), Spring Break in London, managing the puppy, the trip to help my mother-in-law, the trip to UF earlier this week and then the puppy’s spaying yesterday. Not to mention the courses planned and taught, the sessions led, the client content created, the networking accomplished, the dinners shopped for, prepped for, cooked and cleaned up, the furnace issue, the yard needing cleaned up, the mama bird and her nest on top of the ladder we didn’t get put away in time, the closet cleanout, the laundry… and so much more. And now…I reached it. The light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. I’m done traveling for a minute, we are calm for the moment and I feel like I can exhale and finally get through my inbox.
There were days I wasn’t sure I’d get here. What other hell-bent emergencies were going to pop up and send me into a tailspin?
Earlier this week, as I mentioned, I joined my son at Admitted Students Day for his college experience which will begin in the fall. We headed to my alma mater and for just a few moments I got to relive a memory or two. Yes, I did make him walk by my sorority house. For me, that was 100% what college was. But the rest of the trip was all about him. This is his journey, afterall, and if you know me personally you know how I feel about helicopter parents and their college-aged kids. So I basically followed him around the whole time, letting him appropriately lead the way.
As we were learning about the school and the programs in which he will participate, it made me think about who I was when I left college, where I thought I was headed with my life and where I am now. A few weeks before graduation, I was planning to move to DC. I had spent a couple fun summers there and thought it sounded like my next stop. But when my brother got married in Chicago and knew he would be living there, I shifted my plan and followed him there. I found a job in a career that a year before I had no idea existed: meeting and event planning. I stayed in that career for almost a decade first in Chicago and later in Manhattan.
When we moved to Louisville in 2002, it was time for a change and I started a series of entrepreneurial endeavors, ultimately landing on this social media gig in 2008 and never looking back. The winding road that got me to that point had twists and turns and I was brave enough and open-minded enough to allow the idea of following where that road would take me.
So now, here I am. Midlife. 52. Kids about out the door. Sandwich generation. There are parts of me that miss the life of living in the sorority house, hairbrush-microphone karaoke going on at all hours of the night, a constant slumber party where private jokes that we still mention but aren’t 100% sure what they mean were created at 2am, late-night snacks, group-tv-watching, raiding the kitchen, just hanging out. I miss that. But would I go back? Um. No. Though another reunion would do me good.
Life is what we make of it. As with every networking group I join, you get out of it what you put into it. And I continue to put a lot in. But this weekend… I’m putting nothing in and expecting zero output. I’m taking a break and turning my phone off. If you are looking for me, I’m probably snuggling my dogs, in my pajamas, re-binging One Tree Hill. This was the weekend I looked forward to. And I am going to enjoy it.
by 
