Recently I have had to make a lot of choices. And I am wondering who is this crazy person making all these adult choices. And that person is me. Ugh.
So my background: 45 years old (still feel like I am 25 and don't know what to do when I am older), single mother of a 20 year old daughter with mental health issues. Some college but no degree; worked in many different industries: fishing, healthcare, hotels, and interior design. I make decisions all day long about small stuff. What should we have for dinner? Where do we want to go this Thursday on my day off? Which doctor to take my daughter too for therapy? Should I drive I5 to work or take back roads? Which grocery store to go to?

So last May I made a huge decision to look for a new job as I was sick and tired of working in Burien (which was 45 minutes to 1.5 hours drive time from my house). I started looking for jobs; applied everywhere I could. But I think people were scared that I had been in the same job for 14 years (that is a longtime). So I looked for jobs at entry level locations too. I went to part time at the Burien office in August. I started school again. And I finally got a job at a hotel as a front desk agent in September.

By December I had quit the Burien job all together and now just work at the hotel. I am in a very different position financially.....meaning we are broke all the time. But I am so much happier as a human. And again I am wondering were these the right decisions and who made them....oh wait that would be me making them...ugh.

Then about a month ago another question came up: what am I doing with this schooling I am spending so much money on? First I had just wanted information on aromatherapy. Why it works, how it works and the background on the oils themselves. Really it was just for me to learn about them. But now that I work at a hotel and I am learning about the front desk aspect of it; I began to wonder if I could blend the hotel and essential oils/aromatherapy together. I was looking at my school website and low-and-behold they have a spa management program. I thought that is it, this is perfect. So I started looking at the costs and can I do this.

Then the curve ball was thrown at me. My general manager and assistant manager have offered me a position in the Bistro as lead in the evening. Which means working nights and a little more money. So now what. I had a clear path and now I have an opportunity to grow and learn from an amazing manager all about the food and beverage aspect of the hotel.  Before you ask of course I took the opportunity. I talked it over with my daughter and we felt that a good manager would work in many areas of there industry. I have hotel housekeeping experience, I have production/inventory experience and manager experience. Now I am getting to blend these into the hotel/bistro positions and learn even more from my current manager. I think and hope this will blend well with the spa management classes so that future employers will want me to work for them.

Making decisions is so hard and you never know what path those decisions will take you on. Sometimes you have to take the good and the bad. Have some of my choices been wrong (hell yeah) and some were great but maybe executed completely backwards. But I have learned that listening to yourself, trying to be happy and content in your life is the best thing ever.