Beginnings.
I embarked on two new journeys this week.
Or, more precisely, I fully committed to one journey and I found myself unavoidably committing to another.
Semi-Planned
You know that nagging feeling when you just know there’s something you’re supposed to be doing and you keep ignoring it and ignoring it until suddenly you can’t anymore?
That’s been me—vocationally at least—since I left advertising in 2017.
At the time, I was burned out by an industry that (as a wise veteran told me long before I’d ever believe it to be true) ages you fast and spits you out when you’re old. More than anything, I just needed some rest.
I knew I’d be starting a life with Joe by the time I left my steady paycheck. I had a fairly clear sense of who I was about to be (trailing spouse, maybe mom…) but I didn’t know what I’d do.
So when my friend — who had also left the industry around the same time with no real plan — said she was working with a career coach, I eagerly got his info. In six sessions spread over a couple of months, I discovered that there were still professional moments that made me come alive, that I had a very clearly defined set of values, and that there were at least a couple of people who thought that I was a good strategist but could maybe be an even better coach.
But I was so tired. Too tired to really figure out what all of that meant. I shelved the idea of exploring a new professional path and focused on starting my life overseas while picking up some work that wasn’t a terrible deviation from where I’d been before.
The summer before last, I felt the nagging again so I spent a lot of time in prayer and meditation to see if I could discern where I was supposed to go. I came out of it with a pretty clear sense of what I was supposed to be doing and I even went so far as to investigate what it would take to get me from A to B. I knew what the map looked like and I came up with a pretty good list of whys and why nots. And then I found out I was pregnant. The map got folded up and tucked away and Nicolas became the most important why not.
Maybe it was the stillness of the pandemic or maybe it was knowing that we’ll be leaving Brussels in the summer to start our next chapter with Joe’s next assignment.
In the middle of September, I reached out to a career coach who just happens to be another Foreign Service spouse. She specializes in helping expats figure out portable careers and I’ve kind of had a strictly platonic crush on her since I saw her TedX talk shortly after I got to Brussels.
The week before last, I asked if we could bump up my third session so that we could work through the nagging question that was getting harder and harder to ignore:
What if I got my coaching certification? That’s be crazy, right?
It didn’t take long to talk through. All the whys were compelling and all the why nots were pretty flimsy. And, as I’d find out a couple of days later, the certification program I’d settled on was running a pretty decent enrollment bonus.
I started my courses today. Assuming all goes well, I’ll be a certified coach working towards my credentialing sometime in 2021.
Maybe it is crazy. Or maybe it was just a matter of time.
Not really a surprise.
I said there were two journeys embarked on this week. This one? Not exactly planned but not exactly a surprise either: I was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis after a trip to the endocrinologist.
It explains a lot of things. And, as much I’d love to be totally healthy and not finding myself facing an autoimmune disease diagnosis, there’s a part of me that’s totally relieved to know why I’ve been feeling kind of crappy.
Next stop is a trip to a medical nutritionist (which is a medical doctor here in Belgium) who may or may not actually speak English. Should be a fun appointment…
In the meantime, I’m reading up (yes, from credible sources) and getting ready to make some not-insignificant lifestyle changes. Diet and stress reduction play a huge role in getting things more close to normal so those are the areas I’ll be starting with. I’m actually almost excited to take better charge of my physical health in a way that I haven’t for a long time (or maybe ever).
It’s been a week.
Current Me thanks Past Me for the gift of three day weekends. Future Me will probably look back at this sense of excited trepidation and wish there was a way to come tell Current Me “you got this.” (I hope so at least.)
