The Prince who turned back into a Frog

Back in September, when I returned from Italy, I made the announcement that I was engaged. After that, we chose a date (9/30/07), started our planning. My sister was engaged within a few weeks of me, so we were planning our weddings together. They were going to be 6 weeks apart- hers in mid-August and mine at the end of September. Dresses were bought, reservations were made with the church, photographer, DJ, and the reception hall over the course of October and November. And then December came. And it all fell apart. It's a long, "dark and twisty" as Meredith on Grey's Anatomy would say, story. It ended 12/20/06, for reasons he gave that made it clear that it was for the best. And as those of you who read this blog know, I'm moving on- in so many ways. School has been one of the best things I've done, and work is going well. Come September 30th, 2007, I will be walking in the local ADA Step Out for Diabetes walk, which I am on the Planning and Fundraising committee for. Next week I will be working at the local ADA office to set up a Myspace page for the ADA walk- watch for the link to it here. Also, for those of you with Facebook accounts, there is an ADA group on there already. My family has been wonderfully supportive, as have been my friends. My dress for my sister's wedding came in recently, and it looks great!
So, while one chapter has ended, attitude is everything and I believe in looking at this as an opportunity for new beginnings.

A Leap of Faith

Have you ever been reading, and had the words seem to jump off the page at you? Or feel like someone wrote those words just for you? Well, I had that experience as I was reading the "The Up Side" section of my Guidepost magazine last night. Readers send in inspiring and positive quotes to share, and this one was written by John O'Hurley who was on Seinfeld and more recently Dancing with the Stars champion.

"When we leap, we must leap as though the net will appear. A leap in life, however big or small, is an act of commitment with the expectation of success."

As I had mentioned when I started this blog last April, I'm an RN who enjoys teaching and I was hoping to get into diabetes education. I did investigate that, and enjoyed it, as I always enjoy teaching patients how to manage their disease and prevent future complications. However, for many reasons now is not the time for me to be in diabetes education. So, I had to start back at what I thought was square one figuring out how to use my talents and what I value most in nursing, and my almost 6 years experience to develop my career further. I have my Bachelors of Science in Nursing, and had been encouraged by my professors to go on for my masters. At the time, I wasn't sure in what, and desperately needed both real-life work experience and a break from writing papers that I wasn't sure how were going to apply to work situations. About 6 months ago, after 3 years away from school, I started to get the desire to take a class or two, still not sure what exactly in. I knew that I wanted to apply myself even more to my masters if I decided to go back, so I wasn't going to do this halfway. I take awhile to make the "big" decisions (because I like to think all the pros and cons through), but once I'm committed, I'm determined to make things work. After spending the last month or so job hunting and tired of jobs that were not fulfilling to me, I decided it is time for me to pursue my Masters of Nursing Education. There was even a spot open in one of the classes this semester, so my first day back as a student is this Saturday! I am also starting a new job.

So, now back to why the quote jumped out at me. As you can see, I'm taking a two leaps of faith in myself at the moment. I also signed up for The OC New Me Challenge to work on my A1C goal. Each of these things will be challenging. They will require hard work and perseverance when life throws me a surprise or two. And continued reliance on my wonderful family, who has been super supportive, my true friends, and this wonderful OC Community. Because that's what life is really all about, isn't it? Being able to rely on community, contributing back to it, and living your life to the fullest.