A New Chapter

So my sabbatical year at home with family has come to an end. This afternoon we packed up my grandparents' RV with all of my stuff and we'll head out first thing tomorrow morning for my new city. Nursing school is just around the corner - orientation starts July 23th and my first clinical class starts the 28th. Fall semester officially begins August 25th.

It is crazy how much my life (and for that matter, my body) has transformed in the past year. I moved across the country, cared for my father and watched him slip away, grieved, began to heal, found an exercise routine and learned to love veggies and hard boiled eggs, filed for divorce, got into nursing school (again), lost almost 50 pounds, and fell in love. Whew, I'm exhausted just remembering it all.

But I needed this year. Things were really beginning to unravel and although the healing continues, my mind, heart, soul and body are all much improved. Even better, I am really excited about this next step...although somewhat nervous about unravelling again. If there's anything I learned this year, it's the importance of 1) taking care of yourself, 2) surrounding yourself with people you love, and 3) following your heart. I knew all that intuitively before, but this roller coaster of a year was a lesson in life and love.

And with the next step comes the semi-retirement of this blog. I will still post from time to time with milestones, anniversaries, remembrances and other tributes to Daddy. But as I move forward, I find it appropriate to hang my hat for a while. The nursing school blog I've been keeping since December will pick up where this left off, and will be chock full of horror stories, amusing anecdotes, and continued insight into what it means to be a young female nurse-to-be trying to navigate the world.

So here we go...