It seems like I've spent much of my adult life trying to start over. I got divorced at age 30 and along with five children spent years in therapy trying to recover. At about age 40 I finally started college...something that had always been my dream. College was fun and had I been able to just stay there taking classes I would have done it. Finally I settled on Social Work for my major and got a degree.
I graduated just in time to witness ongoing hiring freezes and had to watch many non profits close their doors. It was not encouraging for someone who was an older student and just out of school. It's one thing to be young and have no work experience it's another to be older with none.
I finally found work as a volunteer coordinator. I had met someone a few months before this and it was looking serious. After not dating for 15 years a serious relationship was scary for me. I left the job after one year moving to the Twin Cities area of MN thinking it would be easier to find work down there. I was wrong...it was harder to find work down here. There I was in a relationship and unable to find a job.
Eventually I found work as a Tenant Organizer, something I enjoyed, but I took the job knowing it was was temporary. I worked for two years and once again I was out looking for another job. I fell and damaged my "good" knee, so now I had two bad knees. On top of the bad knee I had a serious weight problem that had only gotten worse since I moved to the Twin Cities. My doctor suggested weight loss surgery and although I was scared, I had too many health problems to let my fear stop me. On Feb 28, 2011, I had gastric bypass surgery...I was scared to death, but I had yo yo dieted for too many years.
Now 11 months later I'm much lighter, having lost 127 pounds. I still have weight to lose and I'm determined to lose it. Once again my life is a do-over, however, this time my physical health is the first thing I'm taking care of.
