In less than twenty-four hours, I officially re-join the work force. It has been eleven years since I have worked outside of my home...eleven years! I am both excited and nervous about this new chapter; mostly excited.
I am not sure I intended for my "break from work" to be quite this long. When I was laid off from my job at the cable company (the company was bought and the office was closing), the timing was perfect. I was halfway through my pregnancy with Julia. I wasn't going to look for a job at that point, then go out on maternity leave for a couple of months. Financially, we were able to make ends meet with Ryun's income. Going back to work and shelling out for day care seemed counterproductive. I remember thinking at various points I would probably go back when Julia went to kindergarten. Kindergarten came and went...year two of kindergarten came and went and here we are, more than half way through her fourth grade year.
Looking back, I feel fortunate to have been home for as long as I was. Truth be told, the first six years of Julia's life involved more doctor's appointments, physical, speech, and occupational therapy appointments, meetings at school, and developmental evaluations than I could possibly remember. In addition to all of the commitments I had with Julia, just before Julia was born, Emily had her first seizure. So for the two years following, we had many trips back and forth to Boston, meetings at school etc. as we worked through defining Emily's diagnosis. I know how blessed and lucky I was to be able to afford to stay home and take both of them to every single meeting, appointment, therapy session, etc. without having to worry about calling out of work, rearranging my schedule or anything else that would need to be considered as a working parent. I am truly in awe of working parents every day and how they, like me, manage every day life, with the added consideration of work in the mix. Thankfully, my days of continuous appointments, therapy sessions, meetings etc. are a thing of the past. Emily has been seizure free for 8 years. Julia has made such an incredible amount of progress that is hard to even picture that she ever needed all of those services to begin with.
The time feels right, and as a believer in the phrase, "If it is meant to happen it will," I know the time is right. Getting this job is exactly what was supposed to happen, at exactly when it was supposed to happen. I am nervous (how am I going to "manage" my still very busy life with work being added to the calendar?) but mostly I am excited. Everything else that work will affect will work itself out, just the way it is supposed to (even if I don't know what that exactly is yet). I am looking forward to meeting new people, learning new skills, and quite simply, just getting back out there "in to the world" again.
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