As I've talked about a little bit before in my blog, right now is a time of major transitions in my life (professionally). I feel that as women it can be very difficult for us to find the right balance between our home/personal life and our professional life, and recognizing the different times throughout the course of our careers that that balance will not be even...sometimes it will be a 70%/30% divide or vice versa. And it's been very challenging for me to understand how I want to structure that balance for myself.
I've found that sometimes, as one-half of a married couple (where my partner also has a demanding, location-restrictive career), I often feel like I am less flexible in my options than I was at an earlier point in my professional path. Unless I'm comfortable living apart for awhile, my transition and ability to search for careers is geographically limited by my husband's position. I'm not going to lie, I definitely find that frustrating. But at the same time, I do want us to stay together as a family. Most of my work to date has been academic/research-based, and I'm often surprised by how many women in my career field place their work ahead of living in the same state/area of the country as their spouses. If that's the right decision for them, then that's certainly the right choice. But for me, I would be miserable living without my husband for 5-6 years at a time, even knowing we would be together in the future. I married him because I want to be with him...because seeing him every day makes my world brighter, and because doing things for him brings me joy and fulfillment (moreso than I experience in my profession). It's a tricky balance.
In conjunction with those thoughts though, my professional struggle has more to do with finding the right position where I can find happiness in a career, which I haven't found (to a great extent) up to this point. I've been challenged, I've felt accomplished at times, I've felt like I've learned things...but truly happy at work? Not really. If I could go back to meet my 18 year old self, the single most important thing I would tell her would be to follow her own happiness. To follow the things that bring you joy outside of what you think people want you to do/feeling like you should make people proud/seeking prestige. If you find your happiness, who gives a sh*t what other people think? ;)
On that note, I went along with my favorite fashion theme today. I just love the feeling of a pretty feminine top and a flirty a line skirt. I'll switch it up one of these days...
My top today was from Lauren Conrad's line for Kohl's last summer-- I love all of the peasant tops that come from her collections. My grey a line skirt is a recent Charlotte Russe acquisition, and my shoes I just found at Ross (they're Calvin Klein) and they're so comfy!
Stella (my puppy) wanted to get in on the action too-- as usual! :)
xo,
Shannon
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