I hate it when I have a crazy dream that I can't get out of my head and puts me in a weird place for the rest of the day.
No, I'm not talking about the nightmare I had a few weeks ago where I was being buried alive while simultaneously sinking in quicksand. Although I still remember that one a little too vividly...
Anyway, every so often, I have a dream where I either a.) have gone back in time and decided not to leave Korea or Prague (depending on what night it is, I guess, although this happens more with Korea); b.) decide to go back to either Korea or Prague in the present. Either of these scenarios makes me feel very happy and triumphant in the dream.
Each time this happens, I wake up disoriented, then disappointed because I realize I am still in Beeville and nothing has changed.
Because these dreams are somewhat recurring in that I have had them consistently for the past year and a half or so, I have to wonder if I'm expressing my deepest desires in my dreams because I don't let myself do that in real life. Or, I'm still not over what happened, as much as I want/pretend to be.
I'm not sure I'll ever really understand why I did the things I did during the whirlwind of experience that was the year 2009 for me. I remember how I felt at the time, but I don't know why I couldn't see past certain things. It doesn't seem like me.
I have days every now and then, still, when I think of Korea and/or Prague and all I feel is a huge sense of loss mixed with defeat. It wasn't supposed to end like that.
I know what I've said recently about wanting to start a life somewhere and be close to my family. Being away from them while overseas was harder than I'd anticipated. This whole job search thing has gotten me all out of sorts and questioning everything.
After all this time and all of these crazy things that I've done, I still don't really know what I want.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Monday, April 11, 2011
to sell out or not to sell out...
I didn't think that upon beginning my job search, I would feel this conflicted. Not that it matters much anyway; it's not like I have any choices until I get offered a position somewhere, but I thought the looking/applying process would be more straightforward.
I thought that I would zero in on jobs at magazines, daily newspapers, and corporation communications/PR divisions. Those would be the only jobs I would consider, and the corporation ones would be only if I supported what the corporation did so that I wouldn't be selling out by taking any of these jobs.
The problem is, selling out becomes a lot more attractive after you've been in the real world for awhile.
Ultimately, what I want to do is to write in some capacity. However, other factors are coming into consideration now (as opposed to a year ago) as I've realized that work isn't everything to me. It's a big thing, don't get me wrong, and I would like to keep caring about what I do, but it's not everything.
For instance, now, I have a job that I like, that's fulfilling (most of the time) and that almost pays the bills (I'll get to that in a minute). I have a great family; they're just far away. I have friends, but they're far away too. I know things could be so much worse. But I also know that I have no future here. If I wanted to continue to be a single loner who dreams up ways to occupy her free time with nothing going on other than work, I could stay.
But if I EVER want to have a family (never mind how many light years away from that I am right now), be involved in things outside of work, meet new people, or spend any time with my existing family and friends, I've gotta get out of here. I don't know if I'm just getting antsy or what, but I feel like all year I didn't let it hit me how much being isolated and cut off from civilization was affecting me, and now that I've begun opening myself up to new possibilities, it's just hit me like a ton of bricks.
Piece #1 of the great puzzle of what I want out of my life was getting a start at a writing career. I don't regret coming here to do that. God only knows where I would be now if I hadn't. But I'm realizing more than I ever did before that there are more pieces to that puzzle. If you're lucky enough to do something you love/believe in and get paid for it, that's great, but at the end of the day, a job really is just a job. Something we all have to do to support ourselves.
Now to the money part of it. I always, always said that as long as I made enough money to live on, I didn't care about it. What did I know? I don't think I'm being greedy. Right now, I make just under what I would need to really survive on my own. My parents pay for my car insurance and cell phone. I pay for everything else. But I literally can't afford to pay for my car insurance and cell phone. The sad truth is, even with a year of experience under my belt in the journalism world, even at a bigger paper or whatever, I can't expect to make much, if any, more than I make now. I'm learning this as I continue my search. One of the first jobs I applied for (this time) was at a daily paper in North Texas. I found out they pay $10,000 less a year than I make now. It made no sense to me, but that's the way it is (I won't be taking that job). I don't know how anybody stays in this field for a long period of time. I don't know I can realistically afford to stay. I don't need to get rich but I do need to pay my bills. I dream about what it would be like to not live paycheck to paycheck. And going back to the family thing, even if I were in a more desirable area, if I want to have a family, I can't be available to a newspaper all the time to go cover meetings after hours and elections long into the night. Again, not to borrow trouble (since that family is really only a figment of my imagination at this time)...
But this leads me to... if I left journalism, where would I go? I've applied for some more PR type jobs, some proofreading jobs, etc., but what else am I really trained for? I have a friend who left journalism a couple of years ago after working at small town papers to go to law school. I've flirted with that idea, but if I'm being honest, the last thing I want to do is go back to school. For a lot of reasons, money included.
All I really want to do is write. And have a life outside of my job. Is that really so much to ask for? Sadly, writers are not valued financially in our society...
I thought that I would zero in on jobs at magazines, daily newspapers, and corporation communications/PR divisions. Those would be the only jobs I would consider, and the corporation ones would be only if I supported what the corporation did so that I wouldn't be selling out by taking any of these jobs.
The problem is, selling out becomes a lot more attractive after you've been in the real world for awhile.
Ultimately, what I want to do is to write in some capacity. However, other factors are coming into consideration now (as opposed to a year ago) as I've realized that work isn't everything to me. It's a big thing, don't get me wrong, and I would like to keep caring about what I do, but it's not everything.
For instance, now, I have a job that I like, that's fulfilling (most of the time) and that almost pays the bills (I'll get to that in a minute). I have a great family; they're just far away. I have friends, but they're far away too. I know things could be so much worse. But I also know that I have no future here. If I wanted to continue to be a single loner who dreams up ways to occupy her free time with nothing going on other than work, I could stay.
But if I EVER want to have a family (never mind how many light years away from that I am right now), be involved in things outside of work, meet new people, or spend any time with my existing family and friends, I've gotta get out of here. I don't know if I'm just getting antsy or what, but I feel like all year I didn't let it hit me how much being isolated and cut off from civilization was affecting me, and now that I've begun opening myself up to new possibilities, it's just hit me like a ton of bricks.
Piece #1 of the great puzzle of what I want out of my life was getting a start at a writing career. I don't regret coming here to do that. God only knows where I would be now if I hadn't. But I'm realizing more than I ever did before that there are more pieces to that puzzle. If you're lucky enough to do something you love/believe in and get paid for it, that's great, but at the end of the day, a job really is just a job. Something we all have to do to support ourselves.
Now to the money part of it. I always, always said that as long as I made enough money to live on, I didn't care about it. What did I know? I don't think I'm being greedy. Right now, I make just under what I would need to really survive on my own. My parents pay for my car insurance and cell phone. I pay for everything else. But I literally can't afford to pay for my car insurance and cell phone. The sad truth is, even with a year of experience under my belt in the journalism world, even at a bigger paper or whatever, I can't expect to make much, if any, more than I make now. I'm learning this as I continue my search. One of the first jobs I applied for (this time) was at a daily paper in North Texas. I found out they pay $10,000 less a year than I make now. It made no sense to me, but that's the way it is (I won't be taking that job). I don't know how anybody stays in this field for a long period of time. I don't know I can realistically afford to stay. I don't need to get rich but I do need to pay my bills. I dream about what it would be like to not live paycheck to paycheck. And going back to the family thing, even if I were in a more desirable area, if I want to have a family, I can't be available to a newspaper all the time to go cover meetings after hours and elections long into the night. Again, not to borrow trouble (since that family is really only a figment of my imagination at this time)...
But this leads me to... if I left journalism, where would I go? I've applied for some more PR type jobs, some proofreading jobs, etc., but what else am I really trained for? I have a friend who left journalism a couple of years ago after working at small town papers to go to law school. I've flirted with that idea, but if I'm being honest, the last thing I want to do is go back to school. For a lot of reasons, money included.
All I really want to do is write. And have a life outside of my job. Is that really so much to ask for? Sadly, writers are not valued financially in our society...
Friday, April 8, 2011
Get rid of education? Sure, that's a GREAT idea!
Sometimes, the amount of absolute ignorance just astounds me.
I've been following this whole government shut down thing, and it appears that one of the hang-ups in getting something done is that the Republicans want to cut off federal funding to Planned Parenthood. Of course, they feel this is the way they're going to save all those unborn babies and God will reward them! I can see it now, John Boehner in a superhero outfit with a winged baby painted on his chest!
Of course, each of those babies will instead turn into one of the five screaming toddlers I see with one very young, disheveled single mom at HEB on Saturdays.
I realize that was a sweeping generalization. It might not have even made sense. I know that adamant pro-lifers would argue that so-and-so that the read about/saw on TV/heard speak at a pro-life convention was born because his unwed mother reconsidered her plans to have an abortion. To them I say, for every one of those cases, I could find you at least five kids whose parents are on welfare, who live in broken homes and who end up in jail or on welfare themselves.
I'm not for abortion itself. I don't think anyone is like, "yeah, let's kill babies!" (but of course, are we counting embryos as babies? Last time I checked, God hadn't gotten back to us on when life begins). Anyway, the point is, these pregnant girls, some of whom become mothers, are not getting properly educated about birth control. Or, more importantly, how to figure out if you're doing it for the right reasons (because I bet you a lot of them are doing it just because they think it's what you do in a relationship or they're afraid their boyfriend will leave them if they don't do it).
But you know who educates people about safe sex? PLANNED PARENTHOOD!!!!
Anyone with any amount of common sense will tell you that abortions are only a small percentage of what Planned Parenthood does. And, I've never been in this situation, but I bet you they're not like, Ok, so you want an abortion? Here you go! I bet there is some form of counseling or at least information-giving involved. Of course, I am talking about Republican'ts here, so I shouldn't expect common sense to come into play.
Wake up, GOP! If you do away with Planned Parenthood, people — including, perhaps especially teenagers — are not going to stop having sex. Even those good little Christian boys and girls who are taught that their bodies are bad and wrong. And what happens when good little boys and girls aren't educated? They do it without condoms. They get STDs. They don't even know they need to be tested for STDs (and when they don't even go all the way, nonetheless!). And yes, they get pregnant. Which starts the abortion debate in the first place.
If you don't believe teens need to be sexually active at all, it's your responsibility to talk to your own kids. But ultimately, they're going to find a way to do what they want. And they need to be prepared. And more importantly, there are a lot of kids out there whose parents (sadly) don't care or weren't educated themselves, so they have nowhere but places like Planned Parenthood or the school locker room to get their information.
Call me a bleeding heart. Maybe I am. But if Planned Parenthood gets taken away (or left up to the states, many of whom are bankrupt and/or have ignorant, ahem, rigidly conservative governors), expect a lot more diseases, little mouths to feed, and just plain confusion.
I understand that money is real problem right now for everybody. But let's find ways to move things around without doing away with needed services (don't tell me it can't be done; the Beeville superintendent cut the district budget by $1.1 million without laying off anybody or cutting programs!)
And don't even get me started on what they want to do to the EPA...
I've been following this whole government shut down thing, and it appears that one of the hang-ups in getting something done is that the Republicans want to cut off federal funding to Planned Parenthood. Of course, they feel this is the way they're going to save all those unborn babies and God will reward them! I can see it now, John Boehner in a superhero outfit with a winged baby painted on his chest!
Of course, each of those babies will instead turn into one of the five screaming toddlers I see with one very young, disheveled single mom at HEB on Saturdays.
I realize that was a sweeping generalization. It might not have even made sense. I know that adamant pro-lifers would argue that so-and-so that the read about/saw on TV/heard speak at a pro-life convention was born because his unwed mother reconsidered her plans to have an abortion. To them I say, for every one of those cases, I could find you at least five kids whose parents are on welfare, who live in broken homes and who end up in jail or on welfare themselves.
I'm not for abortion itself. I don't think anyone is like, "yeah, let's kill babies!" (but of course, are we counting embryos as babies? Last time I checked, God hadn't gotten back to us on when life begins). Anyway, the point is, these pregnant girls, some of whom become mothers, are not getting properly educated about birth control. Or, more importantly, how to figure out if you're doing it for the right reasons (because I bet you a lot of them are doing it just because they think it's what you do in a relationship or they're afraid their boyfriend will leave them if they don't do it).
But you know who educates people about safe sex? PLANNED PARENTHOOD!!!!
Anyone with any amount of common sense will tell you that abortions are only a small percentage of what Planned Parenthood does. And, I've never been in this situation, but I bet you they're not like, Ok, so you want an abortion? Here you go! I bet there is some form of counseling or at least information-giving involved. Of course, I am talking about Republican'ts here, so I shouldn't expect common sense to come into play.
Wake up, GOP! If you do away with Planned Parenthood, people — including, perhaps especially teenagers — are not going to stop having sex. Even those good little Christian boys and girls who are taught that their bodies are bad and wrong. And what happens when good little boys and girls aren't educated? They do it without condoms. They get STDs. They don't even know they need to be tested for STDs (and when they don't even go all the way, nonetheless!). And yes, they get pregnant. Which starts the abortion debate in the first place.
If you don't believe teens need to be sexually active at all, it's your responsibility to talk to your own kids. But ultimately, they're going to find a way to do what they want. And they need to be prepared. And more importantly, there are a lot of kids out there whose parents (sadly) don't care or weren't educated themselves, so they have nowhere but places like Planned Parenthood or the school locker room to get their information.
Call me a bleeding heart. Maybe I am. But if Planned Parenthood gets taken away (or left up to the states, many of whom are bankrupt and/or have ignorant, ahem, rigidly conservative governors), expect a lot more diseases, little mouths to feed, and just plain confusion.
I understand that money is real problem right now for everybody. But let's find ways to move things around without doing away with needed services (don't tell me it can't be done; the Beeville superintendent cut the district budget by $1.1 million without laying off anybody or cutting programs!)
And don't even get me started on what they want to do to the EPA...
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
trying not to borrow trouble
I've been at the job search for a grand total of three days (not including the weekend).
I've gotten more response than I thought I would at this point (which is kind of cool because it's like I'm a real career person now, not just some college grad begging for a job, any job), but I am still worried/stressed out. Sort of. I have a phone interview tomorrow with a company in Houston that publishes online community newspapers in areas all over the city. It seems really cool and right up my alley. What worries me about it (other than being nervous about the interview itself) is what the salary/benefits will be. They weren't posted on the job ad. That's not such a big deal; I didn't know what my current salary would be when I was going through the interview process and it turned out ok. But now I have to make a certain amount of money (not a lot but you'd be surprised how low journalism jobs can pay) and I have, have, have to have benefits. As in medical insurance.
I'm just nervous that I'm not going to be able to find a job with what I need. And that no one will hire me. I think it's good for me to express these fears now, before my first interview, so that they're out of my system and I can focus on convincing these people that I'm who they want.
The other thing that's stressing me out about the search process, though—other than my growing anxiousness about moving back to civilization—is that all of my response so far has been in the Houston area. That's fine, I wanted to go either there or to Dallas/Fort Worth, but just as I'm beginning to get a real chance to move there (maybe—don't want to jinx it!), most of my family that lives there might be moving to Austin. A major reason I wanted to be in either of those two areas was so that I would be close to family and not stuck out somewhere by myself again. I'm tired of being the one who has to travel 4+ hours. I do like the Houston area though. Although I don't know what it's like not to have family there. It'd be so weird to be there without them. But there's no reason for me to borrow trouble. If I find the right job for me and it's in Houston, I'll still go. After all, there is difference between being family-less in BFE and being family-less in a very large city full of young single people like myself. And I wouldn't be totally family-less anyway. I have a couple of cousins, an uncle, and two very close friends who, as far as I know, have no plans to go anywhere.
If I'm being totally honest, where I'd really like to move is Fort Worth. But I haven't found any jobs there, at least not yet. I do need to remember that I've just begun looking.
Right now, I'm just trying to channel confidence. Cool, collected, poised, articulate confidence.
I've gotten more response than I thought I would at this point (which is kind of cool because it's like I'm a real career person now, not just some college grad begging for a job, any job), but I am still worried/stressed out. Sort of. I have a phone interview tomorrow with a company in Houston that publishes online community newspapers in areas all over the city. It seems really cool and right up my alley. What worries me about it (other than being nervous about the interview itself) is what the salary/benefits will be. They weren't posted on the job ad. That's not such a big deal; I didn't know what my current salary would be when I was going through the interview process and it turned out ok. But now I have to make a certain amount of money (not a lot but you'd be surprised how low journalism jobs can pay) and I have, have, have to have benefits. As in medical insurance.
I'm just nervous that I'm not going to be able to find a job with what I need. And that no one will hire me. I think it's good for me to express these fears now, before my first interview, so that they're out of my system and I can focus on convincing these people that I'm who they want.
The other thing that's stressing me out about the search process, though—other than my growing anxiousness about moving back to civilization—is that all of my response so far has been in the Houston area. That's fine, I wanted to go either there or to Dallas/Fort Worth, but just as I'm beginning to get a real chance to move there (maybe—don't want to jinx it!), most of my family that lives there might be moving to Austin. A major reason I wanted to be in either of those two areas was so that I would be close to family and not stuck out somewhere by myself again. I'm tired of being the one who has to travel 4+ hours. I do like the Houston area though. Although I don't know what it's like not to have family there. It'd be so weird to be there without them. But there's no reason for me to borrow trouble. If I find the right job for me and it's in Houston, I'll still go. After all, there is difference between being family-less in BFE and being family-less in a very large city full of young single people like myself. And I wouldn't be totally family-less anyway. I have a couple of cousins, an uncle, and two very close friends who, as far as I know, have no plans to go anywhere.
If I'm being totally honest, where I'd really like to move is Fort Worth. But I haven't found any jobs there, at least not yet. I do need to remember that I've just begun looking.
Right now, I'm just trying to channel confidence. Cool, collected, poised, articulate confidence.
Monday, March 28, 2011
I need help!!!
Ok, blog readers, if any of you really are out there, I need some feedback. Below are links (well, url addresses, I can't remember how to make links) to some of the articles I've written in the past year (has it really been that long?!). I'm trying to have ready a bunch of clips for job applications, which I'll start working on soon. I want a good variety of stuff I've done so I can show my range, but I also want to make sure I'm putting forth my best work. On some of the categories below I have two or three options, so--because it's really hard to judge your own work sometimes--I would like to know which ones y'all think are the best.
Of course, the individual jobs I'm applying for will have some bearing on which clips I choose, but I'm just looking to find which stories are the best for each type. Also, some categories below only have one story that I've already chosen. You don't have to read those unless you want to.
Comment here or send me an email/FB message!
a facts reporting story: http://mysoutex.com/view/full_story/12403655/article-%E2%80%98Women-are-worth-our-time%E2%80%99? OR http://mysoutex.com/view/full_story/9931318/article-Peril-of-the-Pocketknife--Does-punishment-go-too-far-for-student-? OR http://mysoutex.com/view/full_story/9846468/article-Good-dogs-go-missing--Is-it-dognappers-or-just-doggie-wanderlust--?
a human interest story: http://mysoutex.com/view/full_story/10179740/article-A-tale-of-two-kidneys? OR http://mysoutex.com/view/full_story/10823702/article-Their-%E2%80%98guardian-angel%E2%80%99? OR http://mysoutex.com/view/full_story/12257325/article-%E2%80%98Tired-of-crying%E2%80%99? OR http://mysoutex.com/view/full_story/7672679/article-S-T-grad-beats-the-odds?
a more opinion-based story: http://mysoutex.com/view/full_story/9184518/article-Tax-free-weekend--Nightmare-or-dream-come-true-?
unique feature: http://mysoutex.com/view/full_story/7261960/article-Lost-to-time--but-not-forgotten?
an instructional story: http://mysoutex.com/view/full_story/11498802/article-Industry-experts-say--No-need-to-fear-%E2%80%98fraccing%E2%80%99-? OR http://mysoutex.com/view/full_story/7261730/article-South-Texas-goes-nuclear?
Of course, the individual jobs I'm applying for will have some bearing on which clips I choose, but I'm just looking to find which stories are the best for each type. Also, some categories below only have one story that I've already chosen. You don't have to read those unless you want to.
Comment here or send me an email/FB message!
a facts reporting story: http://mysoutex.com/view/full_story/12403655/article-%E2%80%98Women-are-worth-our-time%E2%80%99? OR http://mysoutex.com/view/full_story/9931318/article-Peril-of-the-Pocketknife--Does-punishment-go-too-far-for-student-? OR http://mysoutex.com/view/full_story/9846468/article-Good-dogs-go-missing--Is-it-dognappers-or-just-doggie-wanderlust--?
a human interest story: http://mysoutex.com/view/full_story/10179740/article-A-tale-of-two-kidneys? OR http://mysoutex.com/view/full_story/10823702/article-Their-%E2%80%98guardian-angel%E2%80%99? OR http://mysoutex.com/view/full_story/12257325/article-%E2%80%98Tired-of-crying%E2%80%99? OR http://mysoutex.com/view/full_story/7672679/article-S-T-grad-beats-the-odds?
a more opinion-based story: http://mysoutex.com/view/full_story/9184518/article-Tax-free-weekend--Nightmare-or-dream-come-true-?
unique feature: http://mysoutex.com/view/full_story/7261960/article-Lost-to-time--but-not-forgotten?
an instructional story: http://mysoutex.com/view/full_story/11498802/article-Industry-experts-say--No-need-to-fear-%E2%80%98fraccing%E2%80%99-? OR http://mysoutex.com/view/full_story/7261730/article-South-Texas-goes-nuclear?
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
on the edge of letting go
I'm sitting in my office trying not to eat an entire bag of dark chocolate almonds. I don't feel bad about it. They're semi-healthy (even if I have eaten 2 servings now). I got hungry early, ate the snack I brought from home (string cheese and Triscuits) and then got really hungry again. I don't think I had enough protein at lunch today. Plus, for the amount I've been working out, I think my hunger has increased slightly. Real hunger, not emotional cravings. I don't consider this a binge.
I've been doing really well with not eating processed sugar. My goal is to eat only one real dessert each week. I have stuck to that pretty well; last week I had two but that's ok. Instead, I eat fruity concoctions I make that don't have any sugar--frozen banana treats, yogurty things, etc., etc. It's gone well. I don't feel deprived of anything.
Also, I'm getting into really good shape. I've started doing a lot more heavy lifting in the gym, which I think has really made a difference. I've been running, biking and swimming regularly, staying on a schedule as much as I can with work and other commitments. I think I will definitely be triathlon-ready within the next couple of months. There's one in particular I have in mind (in June), but I'm not sure where I will be by then, so I may end up doing another one. And I may be ready to "tri" one (ha, ha, ha) before June, even. We'll see.
In the meantime, I'm still managing to maintain some sort of social life. However, I have to say that the hardest thing about all of this is being back in old environments. People drinking whatever they want, not being mindful of the calories, eating fried food, staying up freakishly late, etc. I don't have anything against having a good time, but.... let's just say that these days, I like to plan my "good times" carefully so as not to throw me off track for an entire week or worse. And a "good time" to me doesn't really involve binge drinking, junk food, or staying up till 4 a.m. anymore. In that way, I feel like I'm creating an inevitable distance between some of my old friends and me. In a way, that's sad, but it's really ok. It's just the way it is. I don't want to do what they're doing, and for the most part, they don't want to do what I'm doing. I sort of wish they wanted to be healthier, but they don't right now, and I'll be ready to help them when they do.
I've also been thinking about how I define my personal happiness by my size. (I say size rather t than weight because I don't weigh myself). I want to change that, but the way I want it to change is by getting to my ideal size and staying there, something that I thought I had achieved a couple years ago, but surprise! Those pounds are just lurking around the corner if you don't stay conscious and careful. In a way, I'm glad because I am truly learning what it means to be healthy, again, something I thought I knew but so, so clearly did not.
The trick with this is going to be, I think, staying proactive about not gaining when I go through difficult, unhappy, or stressful times, as I have done in the past. My inner wellbeing does not need to be reflected in my pants size. In order to do this, I am going to have to continue to be vigilant about separating food (and exercise, for that matter) from my emotions. Thankfully, though, the process is a cycle. If can keep up my healthy eating and regular exercise, I tend to feel happier no matter what crappy things are happening in other areas of my life. It's something I'll always have to be aware of, but I feel confident now that I have the upper hand.
I know my posts lately have had a lot to do with food, working out, and body image. That probably gets a little tiresome to read about. But I truly, truly feel like I am on the brink of finally letting go of something that has haunted me and controlled my life since I was in junior high. And that's pretty huge--worth a few blog entries.
I've been doing really well with not eating processed sugar. My goal is to eat only one real dessert each week. I have stuck to that pretty well; last week I had two but that's ok. Instead, I eat fruity concoctions I make that don't have any sugar--frozen banana treats, yogurty things, etc., etc. It's gone well. I don't feel deprived of anything.
Also, I'm getting into really good shape. I've started doing a lot more heavy lifting in the gym, which I think has really made a difference. I've been running, biking and swimming regularly, staying on a schedule as much as I can with work and other commitments. I think I will definitely be triathlon-ready within the next couple of months. There's one in particular I have in mind (in June), but I'm not sure where I will be by then, so I may end up doing another one. And I may be ready to "tri" one (ha, ha, ha) before June, even. We'll see.
In the meantime, I'm still managing to maintain some sort of social life. However, I have to say that the hardest thing about all of this is being back in old environments. People drinking whatever they want, not being mindful of the calories, eating fried food, staying up freakishly late, etc. I don't have anything against having a good time, but.... let's just say that these days, I like to plan my "good times" carefully so as not to throw me off track for an entire week or worse. And a "good time" to me doesn't really involve binge drinking, junk food, or staying up till 4 a.m. anymore. In that way, I feel like I'm creating an inevitable distance between some of my old friends and me. In a way, that's sad, but it's really ok. It's just the way it is. I don't want to do what they're doing, and for the most part, they don't want to do what I'm doing. I sort of wish they wanted to be healthier, but they don't right now, and I'll be ready to help them when they do.
I've also been thinking about how I define my personal happiness by my size. (I say size rather t than weight because I don't weigh myself). I want to change that, but the way I want it to change is by getting to my ideal size and staying there, something that I thought I had achieved a couple years ago, but surprise! Those pounds are just lurking around the corner if you don't stay conscious and careful. In a way, I'm glad because I am truly learning what it means to be healthy, again, something I thought I knew but so, so clearly did not.
The trick with this is going to be, I think, staying proactive about not gaining when I go through difficult, unhappy, or stressful times, as I have done in the past. My inner wellbeing does not need to be reflected in my pants size. In order to do this, I am going to have to continue to be vigilant about separating food (and exercise, for that matter) from my emotions. Thankfully, though, the process is a cycle. If can keep up my healthy eating and regular exercise, I tend to feel happier no matter what crappy things are happening in other areas of my life. It's something I'll always have to be aware of, but I feel confident now that I have the upper hand.
I know my posts lately have had a lot to do with food, working out, and body image. That probably gets a little tiresome to read about. But I truly, truly feel like I am on the brink of finally letting go of something that has haunted me and controlled my life since I was in junior high. And that's pretty huge--worth a few blog entries.
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