Recently someone told me that I was "better at managing tasks than people." Talk about a lightbulb. Everything that I've gone through professionally and personally has lead me to where I am now and I'm so thankful, but man... it did sting a bit...
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Growing up in Northern Minnesota to two entrepreneurs, it seemed inevitable that I would become one myself, but it wasn't obvious to me. I'm not sure why I didn't think it before the tender age of 38. I mean, I always wanted to buy and run my dad's grocery and convenience store in my hometown, but could never get back to Lutsen. Plus, once I became a nurse it seemed a pity to waste that knowledge
After I graduated from Arizona State University in 2006, I started working at a foster care and adoption agency then with a crisis response team. Knowing that if I wanted to move up in the world of social work I'd need a masters degree, I got a job as an academic counselor at a university so I could earn a masters for free.
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Then I met my husband. Jesse and I started dating in January of 2010 and by September of that year, his dad was in hospice care with prostate cancer. We were fortunate enough to be there when he passed.
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When Larry died, the hospice nurse came to the house to pronounce and provide support to us. She placed the blood pressure cuff on his arm to confirm he was gone, but continued to talk to him as though he was alive. I knew that wasn't for him; it was for us. I'm always amazed at how seemingly insignificant events can alter our lives. That moment stuck with me so much so that I knew I had I found my calling. I went home and had signed up for nursing school a month later.
Because I didn't want any student loan debt, I opted for a night/weekend program where I could continue to work full time. Unfortunately, that meant a 2.5 year wait to start. During that time I signed up for, and finished, my masters in psychology.
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Jesse and I continued to date and eventually fell in love. The years during nursing school are a complete blur- we got married, I donated a kidney to the mom of one of my nursing school classmate and we made the decision to move out of Arizona all within a 2 year span. Not to mention I was the secretary, vice president and then president of the Student Nurses Association as I made my way through 4 semesters of school, worked full time and babysat on weekends to pay for school. No wonder I can't remember anything
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By the time I graduated, we had decided to move to Colorado. I had traveled to Denver after I passed the NCLEX and interviewed with The Denver Hospice as an RN case manager so I had a job before we officially left Phoenix. Jesse was able to continue working at the same company
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We sold our house, moved in an apartment and started our new lives in Denver. During this time we were trying to get pregnant, but not having much luck so we went to a fertility specialist. After a bunch of tests, we were told we would probably need some help getting pregnant. Also during this time, we started looking at houses. Between the cost of houses in Denver and the cost of fertility treatments, we decided to focus on buying a house first then worry about making babies. We put an offer on a house and found out we were pregnant almost at the same time!
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With a house and a baby on the way, I decided to make a change into nursing management. I left The Denver Hospice and was an assistant director of nursing at a skilled nursing facility.... for 3 months. SERIOUSLY. That's as long as I could do it. It was terrible. Thankfully my boss, Tracey, at The Denver Hospice agreed to have me back. I stayed until after our first baby, Lily, was born. Then an amazing opportunity popped up and I couldn't say no. Tracey had been asked by her boss at The Denver Hospice to be the director of a brand new branch of New Century Hospice in Denver and she asked me to be the manager. So in March of 2018, I left The Denver Hospice and started at New Century where I was the manager for almost 4 years
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During that time, Jesse and I had a small detour in our quest for a nuclear family... we had TWINS. Max and Daisy were born in October of 2019 and it's still a shock to me that this is my life. While I love my entire family immensely, I am so damn stubborn that I am still trying to control what's already happened. Thankfully I had an incredibly supportive family, husband and coworkers during my pregnancy and the birth of the twins. Not sure what I would have done without them
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While those years seemed to go by at a glacial pace, the last 2 have flown by. I left hospice because of burn out and went to a plastic surgery center. Let's just say that didn't work out
So that's where the story gets interesting. I always felt like I was trying to fit a square peg (me) into a round hole (corporate life). It was infuriating. No matter how much work I did on myself and my issues, I always fell short.
