Leaving - Five Minute Friday - 31 Days

It's Five Minute Friday!  It's also the last day of the 31 Days of Five Minute Free Writes.  As I said yesterday, it's been wonderful, but I'm ready for a break.  I may take much of November off from blogging to spend time with my family.  I think they've forgotten what I look like when I'm not behind the computer.

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I haven't had to leave anywhere except by choice.  I haven't been out of the country but twice, and I've always lived in New Jersey.

Of course I left my elementary school, my middle school, and my high school.  The first two were such normal, expected events that I was just happy to move on.  My high school years were not particularly happy, so in some ways, graduation meant freedom.

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I didn't go away for college.  For reasons not especially academically sound, I went to community college.  I did that for one year, then I stopped going full-time and got a job.  Still, I had a safety net because I was still living with my parents.  That job lasted only two weeks, because I realized it wasn't for me.  I quickly found another job that would be the start of my real career.

The first major change was moving out of my parents' house.  In retrospect I see that I handled that very poorly.  It was a last-minute decision, just a few days before Christmas (which was already not the most peaceful time for us, anyway).  I should have handled it much better.

Probably the biggest change, though, was leaving my job of 13+ years to stay home with my newborn.  I didn't dislike the job or the people, but I loved my son more than I liked the others!  I went from wearing disposable lab coats and disposable gloves--every safety measure to keep us from contamination--to having someone else's spit-up on my shoulders and not really minding it.  Having a newborn, being home every day ... yes, a dramatic change in lifestyle--but one I wouldn't change for the world.

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Click through the FMF link at the top of this post if you want to join in with the Five Minute Friday fun.  If you'd like to read my earlier 31 Days posts, please click here.