{"id":2633,"date":"2016-10-12T19:37:37","date_gmt":"2016-10-12T23:37:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.obriensr.us\/?p=2633"},"modified":"2017-04-11T20:37:35","modified_gmt":"2017-04-12T00:37:35","slug":"looking-for-balance-a-long-post-about-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.obriensr.us\/?p=2633","title":{"rendered":"Finding Balance, a long post about me"},"content":{"rendered":"

Almost all of this blog relates to the O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Brien boys and their adventures. Very rarely do I update about myself or Chris. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m probably past due for an update. Here goes…<\/span><\/p>\n

\"IMG_1087\"<\/a>For a variety of reasons the 2013-2014 school year was one of my most challenging as a school administrator. I was never so happy to go on vacation with my family just after the school year ended. Our trip to London<\/a> was one of my favorite family experiences ever. I needed the break, far away from everyday life and time with my three favorite people. Aidan also had a tough school year with several transitions and substitute teachers. Brendan was in his first main stage show <\/a>at Boston Children\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Theatre,<\/a> he begged to go to other auditions and was offered a role in a show for the fall.<\/a> Going into the 2014-2015 school year I had my doubts that I was doing a good job at anything- certainly not my work-life balance. I made the decision not to leave my job after the previous challenging school year because I really liked the people I worked with and didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want my experience at such a great place feel like it was unsuccessful because of a difficult few months. But going through the 14-15 school year I found more and more that I felt like I was letting everyone down. To do my job the way I knew it needed to be done successfully (as I defined my personal success) would be to put in more hours than I could. To be the parent I wanted to be, I needed to be more available. And then there were all the other pieces of my life- missing friends, volunteer projects, family time that wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t interrupted or that I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stressed.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"IMG_2926\"<\/a>On the last day of school in June 2015, after the kids had left but before the staff meetings and end of the year party, I went to lunch with a few work friends. I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t eat. There had been a few things that had not gone as I had planned and\u00c2\u00a0I was responsible for\u00c2\u00a0coordinating\u00c2\u00a0the closing ceremonies. My stomach was in knots. No one was putting the kind of pressure on me that I was putting on myself. \u00c2\u00a0A couple days later we went to Bermuda<\/a> – our whole party of 19. It was perfect in every way but for the first couple of days – even with no wifi- I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t relax. \u00c2\u00a0I knew then I had to make a change. I quickly worked out the math- with some adjustments to the amount of take out and extras that were really not needed- we could swing a one salary house. In early July, I gave my notice to a very surprised and very supportive\u00c2\u00a0boss. I had no plan as of August 1.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"IMG_0234\"<\/a>The first two weeks I was home the kids had camp. I did nothing at all. I was so burnt out. Then we spent the rest of the summer taking day trips, hanging out and having fun. Before long the school year started.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was very weird to not go back to school like I had every year for 12 years. For the whole school year and into the summer I had no plans. I did go on interviews- some were great positions but the organization wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a good fit. In other cases the organization was a great fit but not the position. I was convinced I did not want to jump into something just to do something. I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t sure if I wanted to be in a school again, a nonprofit or something completely different. It was all very confusing. I spent time reading. Meeting with friends in different fields to get some ideas. And I also spent a lot of time with the kids- Brendan was in three professional shows and Aidan was excelling again at school, piano and jujitsu. I wanted to freeze them in time. I loved being at home.<\/span><\/p>\n

But I also knew I wanted to do something. I knew I wanted it to be something that I felt used my previous experience but in a new way and with an organization that had a mission I felt strongly in. By the end of the summer a whole bunch of things came together.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"img_4872\"<\/a>My new role is the coordinator of the Disney Musicals in Schools<\/a> program for BCT. The program <\/span>provides training for Boston Public School teachers to establish sustainable music theater programs in schools. It is a part time, flexible position that also gives me the opportunity to use other skills too. I get to be in a variety of Boston Public Schools and work with teachers and theater artists. Most importantly kids will have the opportunity to participate in a theater experience.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m also working with 4th Church<\/a> as the registrar- all those years of creating spreadsheets comes in handy. Aidan is teaching a class too- so I am available to help supervise.<\/span><\/p>\n

A few other new things- I have been asked to serve on the board of my high school. This includes an areas I really enjoy focusing on- strategic planning, enrollment and advancement- at a place that holds a special place in my heart.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"img_4878\"<\/a>I also realized that in addition to seeing friends I missed having a creative outlet. So I am back to tap dancing. It all came back the first night. I missed the challenge of learning something new.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve enjoyed catching up with friends, having time to go to the gym, random day-dates with Chris when the kids are at their activities and volunteering for different events when things come up. I even spent a week this past summer doing my old job to cover for a vacation. <\/span><\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m happy. My family is happy. And I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m enjoying the shift I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve made to balance my life.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Almost all of this blog relates to the O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Brien boys and their adventures. Very rarely do I update about myself or Chris. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m probably past due for an update. Here goes… For a variety of reasons the 2013-2014 school year … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.obriensr.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2633"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.obriensr.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.obriensr.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.obriensr.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.obriensr.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2633"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.obriensr.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2633\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2797,"href":"https:\/\/www.obriensr.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2633\/revisions\/2797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.obriensr.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.obriensr.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.obriensr.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}