Relaxed and Ready to Go

I had no idea how stressed I was in my day to day life prior to leaving Corporate America. Even my children have noticed I am a bit happier, and a lot more "forgiving" towards the bickering that is normal in children.

So why am I more relaxed? I think it is because I know I have control over my day. If I don't get the laundry done today, there is always tomorrow. I'm not as frustrated by evening traffic. When there is traffic on my way I think to myself, "Oh well!" I'm not rushing from work to school to home to do what feels like 10 million things to turn around and leave again. I can prep dinner prior to leaving and get the kids to where they need to go.

I'm smiling easier too.

How do I know? This morning I went on to the Praxis site and discovered I'd passed (with flying colors) my level 1 exam, and I couldn't contain the joy. It wasn't dampered by things that are "necessity" or "urgent". Because now it is a matter of time. Will I start in June, or will I start in September? It doesn't matter. Because as of tomorrow, my kids are out of school, and I get to play with them all summer long.

For once in the past decade, I am TRULY relaxed and ready to go!

The Last Day in Corporate America

The last day went too fast. I had several projects to try to finish. The goal was to get them "hand-off" ready; in reality, the true meaning was to do as much as possible so my co-workers would not curse the ground I walk on when they took over the work.

I also talked to a lot of people who I hadn't talked to in a long time. Leaving is bittersweet. I had a fabulous time with all the people I spent the "quality" time helping. I can't think of many business partners (nice corporate-America speak) that I really will miss. I'll miss their problems, but it's different for the people.

I'm still waiting on my PRAXIS scores. I know I nailed reading and math (Indiana requires a 176 reading and 175 in math - I passed those easily). The writing score will be published to my online account 2-3 weeks after the test date. So possibly next Friday (May 21) I'll know (I'm an optimist) the outcome - definitely by Memorial Day.

So good-bye old job, old Jen. Hello to all the new experiences that are coming my way. I look forward to facing you!

My New Blog

Welcome! I'm a new blogger to an external world, who has recently left a job in corporate America to go back and do a "Transition to Teaching" position. This is new to me, but I hope to bring thoughts and humor on how I'm doing with leaving a full time job to go back into the world as a student (while being a mom, losing weight, and a honey-do list of magnificent proportions!).