Day 22: How Have You Changed in the Past 2 Years?

Two years ago this time, I was working as a nanny for two different families; one part-time, one full-time. I commuted almost an hour each way to and from work. I lived in a large rental house, and was trying to get pregnant via sperm donor. My life was very different from what it is now.

Looking back, some things were easier; I made a lot more money back then, so that was much less of a concern. My jobs were really not physically demanding the way working as a nursing assistant is. I had more free time, and I used it to go take water-aerobics at the community center and to cook stuff from my farm-subscription box. Have you heard of those? It's called Community Supported Agriculture. You subscribe to a local farm and get a box of produce every week that's grown in your area. I used to go pick mine up at the community center but some places will bring them to your doorstep. It's pretty cool.

I'm a little wary to write much about my life as a nanny, because I still care about the families I worked for and would never want to say something online that they could find and be hurt by. But in retrospect, I took on a lot of emotional stress from that job, mainly because of a particular issue with one of the children, that I found really hard to deal with as someone that loved that little guy. And what happened to him was the reason I lost my second job with the second family, which was really sad to me, because I loved (still love) those kiddos too.

About two years ago, Mr. Polly and I uprooted ourselves and made big changes in our lives. We were living in a condo and about to close on it, and I assumed I'd stay a nanny for many years to come. Mr. P was teaching Special Ed. When we got the opportunity to move back to our college town and buy the comic book store, we pulled out of the condo right before closing (so sorry real estate agent! Truly!) and moved into a little apartment in a big historic house. I worked harder than I've ever worked, normally about 50-65 hours a week at 2 or 3 jobs at a time to keep us afloat while we tried (slowly) to close the deal on the store. I found out I'm stronger than I knew I was. I found out I'm great at interviewing for jobs, because I was offered most of the ones I applied for. I found out that change doesn't have to be that scary. And I found out that I want to be a nurse. I started out as an in-home caregiver as a supplement to my job at a daycare. And ended up as a CNA at a dementia facility, which I love.

I feel like I'm in the right place, professionally and in my life. My director of nursing pulled me aside last week to ask me if I'm interested in being trained and promoted to be a med tech (I am!!) if a slot becomes avaliable. And last night I started training a new employee for the first time, which means I'm eligible for the Mentor Program at work. I'm registered for fall quarter to start doing my nursing school prerequisites. I love living in the town we live in now. And I'm happy with Mr. Polly. We're not trying to have a baby anymore, but we'll probably start again within a year. And I think I'm under a lot less stress now than I was the first time around, which should hopefully be a good factor in making it happen.

So yep, the last 2 years have been good and hard and I think I'm better for them.