In May of 2016 I got fired from a full time retail position. I was living in San Diego, supporting myself & had just dropped out of Graduate School a year earlier. I had the opposite of savings: I had student loan debt totaling over $150k. I was scrambling to figure out how I was going to move back across the country to Maine to be with my family. I had just met an amazing guy, but clearly I was going to have to end that because I didn’t have a way to support myself out on the 🌴 West Coast.
After lots of tequila & crying, I realized that my situation was salvageable. Fast forward 6 months- my life wasn’t beautiful but that same guy from six months earlier never gave up on me. HOW in the world could this handsome, successful man (who despised tequila) still be cheering me on? I ended up finding a Nanny job and I was actually making MORE & working LESS than I was when I was working in retail. I was happy. Plus this guy I was seeing turned out to be even more amazing when we moved in together ( hint: I ended up marrying him).
⚓️ A year into nannying I realized that I wasn’t being mentally stimulated at work & Joshua was getting ready to leave on a deployment to the Middle East… I accepted a position at a Fertility Center with the hope that my mind would be challenged while he was away. 🧠 I was working anywhere from 45-55 hours a week, and on call every weekend… I was beyond miserable, I had little to no social life. After 6 months of running myself into the ground I had a breakdown.
The Fertility Clinic I was employed said I could take some time off, but that would interfere with getting time off for my husbands homecoming & our upcoming ‘White Wedding’ clebration. They were only worried about how quickly I could regain my mental health & come work for them again. My leave of absence became permanent- I never went back to the Fertility Clinic.
Joshua came home and we discussed how our mental health & quality time together was more important than a paycheck.
I went back to nannying part time & started my own beauty business. A year into my business I was able to come home full time- business was thriving & I was happy again.
Since then our marriage has flourished, we are starting a family and my mental health has improved dramatically. We are both focused on making each other happy & finding success in our careers that works around the challenges of Military Life. Because I’m not physically tied to one location for work, I’ve had more opportunities to enjoy life over these last two years. 🌻
I’ve been able to not only live in one of the most beautiful parts of the country but we’ve traveled to San Fransisco, the Redwood Forest, Lake Tahoe, the Grand Canyon, Zion National Park, and Cancun, Mexico. We’ve been able to go home(Maine) for weeks at a time to spend the holidays with our families. We’ve even done a spontaneous trip to New York City, and I’ve even gotten to explore England & Scotland. The most surreal part is that I don’t have to ask for time off, I just pack my suitcase & go. Running my own business is hard- but it’s better than having a boss tell me that my mental health & marriage isn’t important. ❤️
Always choose to take a leap of faith if it is going to encourage the well being of your mental health.
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