Anyone who knows me, knows that I am full of ideas. I have to admit, this really came about as a direct result of Jason’s way of thinking. I didn’t see myself as creative or innovative or even really as a dreamer before I met Jason. Obviously I now recognize that the roots were there, but I, like many of us, had fallen into the box-thinking of the world around me.
Through Jason’s influence, I began to let my mind wander- thinking of businesses, thinking of creative projects, thinking of less-restrictive ways of living. Although he got me started on this path of thinking, it seems my mind has only wandered farther since Jason’s passing. I am antsy. I can’t finish any project or completely develop any idea before another one is jumping out at me. I’ve become restless. The proposition of being able to go anywhere I want, do anything I want has come to fruition and taunts me daily as I strive to figure out my path, my purpose, my reason for life, and, ultimately, to figure out my desires.
Many of you know that I have reduced my hours to part-time at work, and when I say part-time, I mean severely part-time. Amazingly, this has reduced my stress and increased my opportunities. Opportunities to serve, to create, to explore, to live. In the end though, everyone needs a means of income.
Jason and I toyed with many business ideas before his passing- unfortunately a number of them I don’t understand at all, so they are kind of off my list of possibilities right now! However, since his passing, I have developed many of my own ideas and begun to transform a few of our original designs.
I am specifically driven toward real estate. Originally Jason and I wanted to own rental properties, most likely condos or apartments to start with. We planned to own rentals in our area (Raleigh, NC) and we had a fun niche to use as a draw to our rentals. As exciting as that was, after Jason passed I started to realize it just wasn’t the direction I wanted to take. Even though I am still interested in Real Estate, residential rentals just didn’t seem like something I could be truly passionate about.
One of the things I have learned from becoming a widow at 25 is that life is simply too short to do anything I don’t love. I love teaching, and I realized that with the way public education in NC is going, I can’t love teaching full-time- hence the resulting part-time teaching status. So what do I love besides teaching? Serving- I definitely love serving others, so I currently serve in my church’s Temple 3 Saturday’s a month, and I teach early morning Seminary for my church as well. I also get to use my freer-than-usual schedule to help serve friends and family when they need me, and don’t worry, I’ve still been doing my Jason’s Acts of Kindness, I’m just terrible at blogging them. Okay, so we have teaching and service- what else? Well, of course I have to add camping, hiking, and just general adventuring to the list. Jason and I used to try to spend every possible summer weekend engrossed in some sort of adventure, whether camping, repelling, rock climbing (thanks for that Sarah and Eric), rafting, biking, canoeing, cliff jumping, oh the list goes on. I have to admit, though what I love most about myself is my adventurous spirit, I haven’t done nearly enough adventuring since Jason passed away. More than just adventuring for myself, I want to inspire a love of adventuring in others, and I want to make adventuring a bit less-intimidating so more people will try it out!
So what does all this mean? It means I’ve been working on idea. An idea that I want to [partially] unveil to the “public.” I heard about a study recently that states people shouldn’t verbalize their goals to others because when they do, they get a false sense of accomplishment due to people’s excitement for the goal, so rather than telling you what I want to do, I’m just going to tell you there is an idea in motion. Something I’m excited about but that still requires a lot of background work. My secretiveness isn’t because I don’t want to share, but because I want to succeed!
Wish me luck!!
Sounds like you have one of those visions that makes you want to jump out of bed every morning. That's the best kind! Here is what you asked for! Luck! Hope! Prayers! Belief in you! Encouragement! Today is the perfect day to take the next step! Love you!
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