Mid-Year Crisis = New Life, New Blog :)

Hey everyone. So I committed to writing more often and as usual life gets in the way. It's funny I really want to ramp up this blog, I've read some pretty spectacular blogs and I'll love to be as connected to my readers as other bloggers are, so I'm going to work harder to write more often and truly start changing up the content of this blog.


From now on this blog will still have personal updates for all my friends and family that read it but also hopefully to bring in a larger audience to this blog. If there is something I have learned in the last 12 months when I lived in Flagstaff, AZ it's how very different and alike us young professionals really are from previous generations. We are truly moving back towards being like the 60s idealists, and while some of use have parents who grew up in that era some of ours did not, and we tend to have very different viewpoints from our family on specific topics.


Well I want to use this blog to talk about the ups and downs of being a young idealist professional that still has the optimism and drive to actually work to see a difference in our world. Many people tell me don't ever loss that spirit because so many others have lost their spark with the discontent they've had with our government, our country, and our world. And trust me sometimes I'm one of them. But something I really learned at Elon University was we can't just complain, we have to go out there and make it happen. And guess what that's exactly what I plan to do. I welcome you to the roller coaster ride that is my life. I hope you enjoy coming along for the ride.


Another area I really want to talk about more on this new blog, is chronic health issues and how it is affecting so many of us now. I have had a diagnosis of Fibromyalgia since I was 16,  a "syndrome" that using doesn't affect people till there late 30s and usually more women who are typically type A. People who don't know about this and find out only when I get really sick, typically tell me they had no idea I even had health problems because I've always had such a hard time admitting that I have limitations. I pretty much want to be wonder women, which as I'm truly seen over the past few years, is the biggest reason why us women have a hard time with not only traditional roles but also with our modern roles. The older I've gotten and the more time I've spent out of college, the more I realize why my mother wanted me to start changing my life around when I got the fibro diagnosis. She told me that we women are far more likely to not know how to say no, be workahoics, but then expect to have a normal personal life, we just want to make everyone happy. Which in the last 6 months I have learned harder then ever that she's totally right and always has been. My health has deteriorated in the last several months and I knew it was time for a drastic change. I need to learn balance better, I'm always been great at the academic and work life, but it's my personal life where I really struggle the most. Whether it's my friendships, dating relationships, or the lack of time I spend actually taking care of myself, when I ended back in the hospital 3 weeks ago, I knew everyone who has always tried to help me have always been right. But like they say, until the individual has had enough and decides to change it themselves they will never change. Well guess what, I'M THERE!


3 Weeks Ago, I left my job, moved to a new town to live closer to family, after long discussion Rob and I decided we'd actually take the plunge and live together, been going to countless doctors to get to the bottom of the most recent major flair in symptoms. As I've always thought there was a missing diagnosis and that the fibromyalgia was just modern medicine's way of saying " we have no idea why you are the way that you are" . But answers have slowly been coming in and I've been able to set up an appointment with a specialist in Fibromyalgia who actually takes a look at medicine from an integrative standpoint, so I can't wait to actually go see him, and start getting this healing process to go into overdrive. I'm now just contracted to tutor, and have been looking at some new opportunities to start consulting. I also FINALLY after many years have found the perfect masters program for my interests and personality and will be applying in the coming months to hopefully start in the fall.


For those of you that are new to this blog, the post below is a quick update of the last several months, so you can catch up. But from here on out I hope to make a major change to this blog and my life.


I hope you enjoy riding on this roller coaster with me, and that the personal and professional growth I am so deeply seeking might be an inspiration to others who may be experiencing some of what I've been going through. Please comment and post, and contact me through LinkedIn or twitter to connect. I love constantly expanding my network of incredible people around the country and world.


I look forward to enjoying this adventure as much with any new readers and getting to finally focus on what matters most, living life one day at a time and enjoying it!

Till Next Time, Coral :)

Life Got Busy, AGAIN :)

So here's a quick update. Hold on for the roller coaster it's going to be a long ride...


Last time I wrote it was about to be the grand opening of the new facility that I had been working on to open in Flagstaff, AZ. Well now the facility has been opened for almost 4 full months and we are gearing up for a new school year, but without me.

About 3 weeks ago I left Flagstaff due to medical issues and am now in Tucson. I had been trying to moving there for quite sometime but like everyone else these days, the job market is a little rough for my taste and I hadn't been able to find anything. The last two weeks that I had been there I was at least able to go to some interviews and I just going to be doing some tutoring again for the time being.

I just came home to visit family this past week to take  a break to recuperate from the endless Dr visits before I went back for more.

I've always been interested in consulting and working for myself because I have so many interests that span a lot of different fields. So I'm currently looking into that and thinking I may continue working in education access but offering cheap alternatives to high end professionals so I can continue my professional growth doing what I love. So we'll see how this all comes together, I've been talking with some of my very trusted friends who always have great information and am looking at my options.

I was able to find a great masters program that I can actually start in the Spring, which is great, I've been looking at graduate schools since I was a sophomore in college and I have missed the academic environment, I know I want to teach ( as a professor) and do some consulting so I can work on different projects. So I think while it may seem that having to just up and quit my job and move was a rash move, even for me, someone who likes to move around and try new things, I think in the end things are coming together better then I could have ever planned.

I get to live in a fantastic new place I live very close to my aunt who I'm very close with. And I think the opportunity to just do contract work for various companies now will really help me grow my network and let me really finish tunning down my interest areas so I can design my masters.

The neatest thing about the masters program I found is that it is completely self designed perfect for someone like me who has a hard thing following anyone elses idea of what I should learn and study. I know I want to be a professor and with my masters I can at least start teaching at a community college and I'm really looking forward to this opportunity. So it seems all you have to do is stop being so type A like me, let go for once and see what happens. I think better opportunities have come the minute I just decided to forget it leave town get the medical help I needed instead of constantly putting it to the side, and now I'm also finding incredible professional and personal opportunities in my new town.

I'm excited for my new adventure and I promise to write more frequently for the rest of the year. My best friend Jennifer has even got me looking at doing Scentsy just so I can continue to develop my business skills, so we'll see that's still up in the air, but I feel like for once I'm breathing more even though more things are just floating right now. I'm happy and starting over. I'm excited for the new challenges and opportunities, and I'm sure I'll have some interested stories to write about soon.

And most importantly, for those of you who know I am a Citizen Philanthropist for Citizen Effect and that last year, 2009 I raised money to improve a school in Peru. I am still doing this work, although with all my personal life changes it is currently at a standstill, but soon I will be auctioning the photos that did not sell from my first art gallery show in May on eBay and will be posting all smaller pieces of art on sale on Etsy, keep checking the blog for more updates. 

As always stay in touch, many of you who read this have my email address, if you do not feel free to connect with me through LinkedIn or twitter. Both those profiles can be found on the left side of the blog.

Signing Off! Hoping everyone is having a great summer and enjoying it!