About

All you need to know about me...

Hey y'all, Welcome to my blog! My name is Kate, I'm 35 and I live in Terryville, CT. I have an amazing husband named Mike and a 15 year old daughter named Alexia. I recently made a serious life altering choice to leave my career and position to spend some time at home. 

So I was the characteristic mid level manager, 200+ people under me, and seemingly just as many over me. 60+ hour weeks, 24/7 on call availability and not coming up for air. I went about at this pace for three years at the company I just left, but worked in similar capacities prior and also found the job just as stifling. And did I mention work/life balance? What is that, again? I may have achieved providing in the monetary sense for my child, but I was a terrible mother. Home late every night, irritable, impatient and quite frankly just a bitch at times. I couldn’t leave the stress at work, and how do you when it finds you everywhere you go via text and email?

So this Spring, following a particularly difficult meeting at the corporate office and facing some challenging situations at home, I decided that I was bailing. It sucks to feel like your not doing good enough in just about every area of life. I didn’t want to leave for another management job at yet another healthcare provider because I know better… The grass ain’t always greener. But even more important, I don’t like doing it. I started in long term care as a dishwasher, my first job ever, and literally grew my career from there. From washing dishes at 16  years old to running healthcare facilities as the Licensed Administrator within 15 years. And during those 15 years, I had my daughter at 19 and spent the next 8 years working full time and getting my BS at night. Then I dove right into transitioning from managing the dining programs to managing the whole facility almost directly out of school, and have been working ridiculously demanding jobs since then. It's like going 100 miles an hour all the time. I’m fried at 35, which is pathetic! I was actually fried like 2 years ago. I guess I’m more burnt to a crisp at this point.

Until now. This is the beginning of a journey. I am fortunate to have had the crazy demanding lifestyle I've been leading result in a financial cushion for a bit to explore what I want to be when I grow up. Buh-bye job and six figure salary, though I will sorely miss the income. It’s time to own the future. To figure out what I can actually survive doing for the next 30 years, and feel fulfilled and happy in the process. And what better way to document my travels through the unknown than a blog, right?

Why "DIY wanderer", you may ask? I just love creative projects and artistic stuff. And one of my all time favorite quotes is from JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, "Not all those who wander are lost". Seems to be my new motto. So I am committed to wandering until I find my place, so to speak, much like the story. And whatever comes my way, I'm ready for.