Keeping what's really important a priority. Why is this soooo hard???

First, let me say thank you.  Thank you for coming along with me these past few months.  Thank you for your comments and feedback.  Please keep them coming.  If you have any tips or suggestions to make this blog more meaningful, if there are any topics you want to discuss, please leave a comment or email me.  I respond to all comments and emails.  It means a lot to me that people actually read this blog.  It also means a lot to me to know that my outlet, this space, may actually help someone or at the very least give them a sympathetic ear...sometimes just knowing that someone else is having similar ups and downs as you makes life a little easier to handle.  Especially when you see them making big moves and livin' large (Do people still say this??? LOL). 

As you work toward a graduate degree, you start building new personal and professional networks.  Because of these relatively new relationships, I understand that we, as graduate students, find ourselves in a very special situation after grad school.  In one word: LOCATION  
Doesn't seem like it should be an issue, but it's a big issue.  With the job market being so rough, you need to be a flexible as possible to land a gig BUT........At the end of the day, where you call home, for whatever length of time, can affect your happiness in many ways...which can even affect your job performance. 

I look at how much I have blogged this week, yeah it may be because I'm on "vacation" (hahaha I've worked everyday this week, I'm just in Texas and not in the office) but really it's because I've been in the mood to write.  Why???  Maybe because my bones don't hurt from being freakin' cold all darn day!  (Yeah, I said it)

Well FARE, you knew when you took the offer where you were going...what's the damn problem?

Ok, that's fair (LOL) but I have always been so outgoing that I truly believed I could make any place work for me.  But I didn't take into account that my priorities would shift.

Before business school, I was enjoying the adventure of living outside of the Great State of Texas (Yes we are brain washed...I know LOL) but as I get older and my family members get older, living closer to my family has become more important to me. 
In my twenties, it seemed like I had all the time in the world to get my life together.  Now that I'm in my thirties, I feel like I'm as together as I'm going to get for the moment. I'm ready to start the settle down part of life and I don't see that happening in MN.  I could be wrong, but when I look at the situation and all the advice I have been given, I'm not in a city that has the right opportunities for my personal life.  Plus, I don't find the Twin Cities all that fun this time of year, not a fan of snow. 

The point:  Make sure you are setting your post grad life up for success on all fronts, not just the job.  Understand what's really important to you and what really will make you happy.  
I was so focused on the job and the money that I put blinders on.  In hindsight, sometimes....(mostly when it snows so hard I can't really see anything from my windows and I feel like I'm in a snow globe) a few times, I think about what if I had opted to keep looking on the job front.  I don't think I would as happy with the job and company as I am now, but I might actually have had the personal life I envision for myself. 

My new year's resolution:  Do everything in my power to make myself healthier and happier with what I have.  I will take it one day at a time and just keep trying to align my new priorities with where I am in life today.  That's all we have right..is today?

Carpe Diem!
Love,
FARE