Hello 2025!

Hello 2025. It's nice to meet you. To be perfectly honest, I've been waiting for your arrival for quite some time. It's not that I was trying to wish 2024 away, but it's been a year.

Image from Pixabay.com

If I had one word to describe 2024, I think the answer would be EXHAUSTING. I can't say it was a terrible year, but it did have its challenges. Here is a recap of what I've learned, how I've grown, and why I'm so excited about 2025.

Our Health is Everything

This year gave us a few health scares. I started January with umbilical hernia surgery, which in hindsight wasn't that bad. The worst part was knowing that I wouldn't be able to take long walks or exercise for 6 weeks, so instead of beginning 2024 with my normal enthusiasm for getting in shape--I started it more with a shrug.

In April, we went on our long-awaited trip to Costa Rica and ended it battered and bruised. My husband, who has not one but two bad knees, couldn't walk by the end of our trip, so we had to use a wheelchair to help him get around the airport. My son took a header when he hit a pothole on a bike riding excursion, and I was bruised from our tubing adventure. When we came home to "recuperate" from our trip, less than four days later, my son was in the ER for pneumothorax (a spontaneous lung collapse). The doctors didn't think there was a connection between the trip and his lung collapse, but they didn't know the reason either. Two surgeries later, we left the hospital knowing just as little as when we entered. They tested him for a condition called Marfan syndrome, but thankfully, it was negative. The only advice that was given to us was no scuba diving or jumping out of airplanes. Also, they recommended Lewie not fly for a year either.

Lewie leaving the hospital after his surgeries.

In the summer, I had my own scare when an ultrasound found two cysts on my right breast. Everything ended up fine, but I could have done without the weeks of worry. Then Hubby was slated for a full knee replacement surgery in September. The surgery got pushed back to November when he came down with pneumonia. Then, his sister, at the young age of 57, passed away from a brain bleed--she had been battling Cancer and kidney disease. Her death happened two days before my husband's surgery in the same hospital! We thought about postponing it yet again but decided to push through... His surgery, especially the pain and the immobility, was rough, but two months later, he's already feeling a drastic improvement. He started back to work two days ago!

Worry Can Take a Toll

This year was all about worry. I started the year worrying about my hernia surgery and my position at the land trust. I worried throughout our entire trip to Costa Rica--the plane flight, the driving, and the mini-excursions that were more adventurous than I had originally thought. Then, after my son's lung collapse, I worried about the surgeries, his recovery, and getting him through his final weeks of school. (Can you believe the school made him take his finals?!) I worried about my breast scare and then worried about my husband's surgery. (He became addicted to opiates back in 2006, so the idea of him taking a low dose of opiates again to reduce the pain was downright paralyzing...)  Then, of course, there was worrying about wars and political unrest around the world, climate change, and our presidential election...

New Beginnings are Hard, but They Make Us More Resilient

In January, I was still a "new" employee at the land trust, having started only five months earlier in August 2023. While I had spent a good portion of my life wondering what it would be like to work in conservation, now I was actually doing it. I was learning how to run a small non-profit, how to work with a board, and how to cultivate donors. I was also learning about all the amazing organizations, both small and large, that work together to contribute to land conservation and stewardship. 

I started the year committed to my new career but then a series of events changed everything. First, our Dcvelopment Director left.  Then, when Lewie was in the hospital, I couldn't take time off. Since I was the only person to "run this show," which included a number of events, I was stuck having to oversee them while my husband sat at Lewie's bedside.

I offered to take on more responsibility but then received a grim reminder that taking on more responsibility didn't equate to more pay. The directors around me, at bigger trusts, were making $20,000 to $30,000 more, but they also had years if not decades of experience. Was this truly my start to a new career or a dead end?

I started to realize how much I missed working in higher education, and so, with a lucky twist of fate, I was hired to work in recruitment strategy for our Connecticut community college system. It wasn't a huge bump in salary; if fact, the increase was modest at best, but making this move did three major things...1) It gave me a chance to go back to a familiar career that I love, 2) It helped me realize I am GOOD at higher education administration, and in fact, this is where I belong, and 3) It provided the confidence (with a little financial incentive) to go back to school for my Doctor of Education. Now, I am four months into a new position again, but I love it, and I love knowing that I have the opportunity to go back to being a dean, a VP, or maybe even more.

Opportunity is Available if We Look for It

This is my motto for this year--2025.  After I was laid off, I spent almost two years in self-reflection. Who am I? What's important to me? What am I good at? I spent an equal amount of time worrying about everything--from our finances and our health to Lewie's education and the future in general. Like I said before, it's been EXHAUSTING.

This year, my goal is to funnel this worry into action. Instead of worrying at the sidelines, I'm going to turn this negative energy into something positive. I'm not going to have any delusions. Going for an Ed.D. will be hard, and I don't want this to undercut important time with family and friends. It will require some extraordinary time management skills (which is not my forte), but as long as everyone in our immediate family has their health, there really is no excuse not to seek opportunity. I'm not getting any younger, and at the same time, I still have another 20-year work career left. There are no pensions for me, so I can either worry or look for opportunity.

This year I will turn 50, too. If I'm going to have a mid-life crisis, I might as well make it a productive one--LOL.

One of my favorite pictures from Costa Rica. If only I had stopped the
worry enough to fully embrace the beauty.

Wishing everyone a year of "a little more laughter, a little less worry, a little more kindness, and a little less hurry." May health, love, and happiness be yours.