I might have blogged already today, but here I am again.
The thing that is bothering me about leaving work is so multilayered. I've worked for a paycheck from the moment I was able to get a work permit, almost 50 years ago. School and work were what I did, then work, then raising kids with a bit of employment here and there, then working hard to live and breathe until a couple years ago, when I cut my hours fro 70ish to 20ish per week for the last little while. My assumption was that I'd keep working for probably 4-5 more years. And also that I'd ease into this retirement thing.
The nature of contract work is that at some point, there's just no more to be had and when they hit me up with the 3 hours a week thing, it did sort of cut into who I am. One day, I'm hanging in VA Beach with new friends and the next, I'm kissing employment goodbye.
When people ask "what do you do?" they're asking about your work. They're not asking about your art, your life at home, your volunteering in the community, or that you're a mom, wife, dog mom, friend, person, etc., nope, they're asking about your job. I've had more than one career and all have served me well.
I worked in a floral shop as a teen, went on to try my hand at being a hairdresser, and decided to pursue college and nursing after my son was born. I worked as a mom for a lot of years, and fell into working part time at the local hospital. I experienced a lot of department, medical exposure, and learned that being a nurse was not for me, but working in the medical field was. With some mentoring and help from others, I started working in medical transcription as well as doing data research for the small hospital for whom I was working at the time. From there, I bought a transcription service and ran that for years, beginning my very long career of working from home and advocating for telecommuting. Add in a touch of online community work, and I was a happy gal.
I sold the company and went to work for a large medical system in Pittsburgh, first in their transcription department and then assisting with the startup of an online medical transcription company for the same hospital. As with my own transcription company, everyone I hired worked at home, again furthering my telecommuting training, and kind of quietly consulting about that on the side. All the while, I kept my feet in the online moderation business and eventually left the medical world to pursue that full time, then part time, and now, to no time.
There's a lot that came between all of the experiences above, but what I'm getting at is that my work has defined me. It's who I was and what I did. Now I am taking a new direction and will learn to love it as well as the rest of my life up till now.
I think I'm just processing all of this as it's as big a change as quitting smoking, and I did that pretty well 
Any of you who know me or are getting to know me also know that I won't let this get me down for long and that I'll find 20 million billion gillion things to do.
Now I go to bed. Thanks for listening.
Ch ch ch ch changes.
Donna
Day 159
