Bye 2023

Image by Paul Stachowiak from Pixabay

Time seems to be moving faster and faster as each year comes to a close. I had a great holiday season and I sincerely hope all of my readers did as well. The holidays can be a really difficult time for many, especially if we experience loss, unanticipated changes, or loneliness. I have felt fortunate for many years, with this year included, that I have a great family to spend time with and great friends to share the holiday cheer with during this season. 

2023 came and went so fast, I am almost having an issue trying to think of everything that has happened this year! I had a lot of success academically and professionally. I am really excited to drive into clinical teaching in February. When I thought about what I wanted to do in the twilight years of my nursing career, I knew I really wanted to teach. I also have this huge passion to teach others about mental health and substance use disorders. When I completed my education in June, I didn't think that I would be accepting a position so soon that is exactly the combination I was hoping for! I am a bit nervous as bringing students to the floor can be a challenge; however, these students have been around for a little while and the mental health nursing rotation is really important so I am trying to keep my confidence up and keep my fears in check.

I have also been challenged by my new therapist to expand my personal horizons. For me, I have been single for a long time. I have had some intermittent relationships here and there, but generally have spent the last 15 years mostly single. I also don't have children. I feel like with this mix, the career becomes a central focus in life. On more than one occasion, I have had people encouraging me to find my life outside of my career. I take great pride in my career and feel it is a large part of my identity. That being said, I can be something else on my "off-time".

It was probably about a year ago when I started to subscribe to YouTube music. With that subscription, I get YouTube content without ads. Wow, YouTube is a wild compilation of all sort of drama, education, theories, humor, cat videos, etc. I have been actually inspired by some of the content creators to consider doing my own content. I am in the very beginning stages of looking into this. I have found quite a few great creators that talk about addiction and recovery. I am thinking it might be worthwhile to throw my hat in the ring. I am not sure that I have anything new to say. But, like many other creators, I have experiences and stories about what life is like in active addiction and the life afterwards. I am not looking to make money or have 1 million subscribers. I am interested in having a platform to talk about my experiences. 

One of my goals in 2024 is to get this up in running. It may be on YouTube or I may find another avenue that is more my style. I should be able to start this up without major cost or significant time. I will keep you all posted if you are interested in some video essays. Since I have over 10 years of entries on this site, I was thinking about just taking a random entry and looking back at what my topic of the day/week/month was back then and how I might see things now. 

I have some other goals of 2024 that are going to require much more planning and effort. I have to remind myself to be slow and steady and not burn myself out. I will be working quite a bit from February through May between three jobs. After this first semester, I am going to reevaluate everything in June. I want to get to a point of being more responsible with my money and create more savings. I should be easily able to do this between all different sources of income during this period. I also want to start attending to my home again. I had such great momentum in 2018 when I bought it. I did a lot of updates, but there are more than need to be done. I am toying with the idea of selling my place and moving closer to my family. Fortunately, there are a lot of things in my favor AND I don't have to move anywhere unless the deal is right for me. It's hard to be on the polar opposite side of the Cities from my family. So, it is something on the list to look at diligently this year.

Another goal is to get back into writing. I look at my blog and see the time lapse between entries. When the renewal comes up for this site, I often think about not renewing. I fear, however, if I did, I wouldn't write much going forward. I think that would be a huge loss for me. Most of the time, this blog is part of my therapeutic  process. I having something on my mind, I decide I am going to take a few minutes to write out a blog, see where it goes, and often times come to some type of resolution. So, I will a little more attention to my writing.

Thank you for taking the time to read this blog! I really appreciate all the feedback I have received over the years. I have connected with a lot of people who had questions about addiction and recovery. I am always happy to chat if you have questions or concerns about someone in your life. 

Sending lots of love in 2024!!!

​Julie