Work It

It's been a very tough transition home. There's so much to tell; new resolutions to be made (and hopefully kept); revisions on the blog; old friends to relocate; recent friendships to maintain....

I started aggressively job searching in the Bemidji, MN area around March/April because it was 'time to come home,' and I was at a natural break point. I can't say enough how unnatural it felt, once I was actually rolling out of Columbus, Ohio, possessions -- and sister-in-law -- crammed into my little Hyundai Accent. I left friends and a fun bartending job for uncertainty and remoteness and comfort. I'm still trying to figure out if I could have logically justified the move at the time.

I kept up a race with the calendar, determined that by National Guard drill time (at the end of the first week in June), I was coming home, with or without a job. Life picked up pace. I phone interviewed before the move and in-person interviewed afterward for a help desk, tech support position with North Country Business Products -- and I got the job! It's a full-time position with full benfits and decent hourly pay. Meanwhile, I was worried about a back-up plan, so I picked up a bartending job at an area rural bar (Solway). I started getting excited about my two (!!!) new jobs, when...

I was thrilled that, after two months of discouraging unanswered effort, I got a call from a third location -- for a well-situated position as well -- but declined on account of having accepted and began my daytime job already. What an ego boost!

I caught up with long-lost church friends last Sunday, and still managed to find time to do my part of the lawn -- between gale-force winds and rain bouts -- working with mom and dad on our property. I maintain this odd feeling of now being homesick for Columbus, but I know it will soon be displaced by simply missing the handful of friends in whom I'll stay invested.

Resignation of my officer's commission in the Minnesota National guard will be effective on the 4th of September, and I couldn't be happier to be tactfully and deliberately closing that chapter in my life.

I am excited to see what the coming days will bring. It feels so good to be home!