Celebrating change and new challenges

Here you are my friends, as promised, the long anticipated post on my little getaway to Whidbey Island. Long being the operative word as it’s been two months since the trip. 😉 The reason for this delay, the reason for my lack of presence here and the reason for the trip for that matter, are all one and the same: my new job. Let me explain.

In the past, I’ve written about not liking routines and getting bored easily, yet ironically I’ve had the same job (until recently) for over 8 years. Why? Because change is scary. After being at the same place and doing the same thing for a while, you (or at least I did) get comfortable and complacent. You have a routine. You know what and who you have to deal with each day. There are no unknowns. The problem with all this is that sooner or later you get bored, you don’t feel challenged and you lose the drive and motivation to drag your ass out of bed everyday. You become unhappy. After all, you are not a robot.

It took me many years to make a change. This was due, in a small part, to timing and the lack of suitable opportunities. But it was largely due to fear of the unknown and uncertainty. Even when I got the opportunity for change, I wavered. It has been a big adjustment, having to meet new people, getting trained on new techniques and spending extra time outside of work to get up to speed. The toughest part sometimes though, are my feelings of inadequacy and being less than confident in my abilities, both in the lab and being able to adjust to make this change work. This is the result of not being challenged for so long.

After 2 months, there are still times, during those 11 hour work days and weekends in the lab, when I wonder what have I gotten myself into? Why did I leave that comfortable place? These are the times that I have to remind myself: change is hard, but change is good. And change should be celebrated.

It was celebrated the way I like to celebrate all special occasions, be it a birthday or anniversary. It was celebrated not with a party or even a fancy dinner, but with a nice little getaway.

This mini getaway was to Whidbey Island located in the Puget Sound and this is what we did…

We stayed in a cozy little cabin.

We explored the island from top to bottom twice because it only takes an hour to drive from one end to the other. Along the way we stopped in cute little towns, where perfect strangers wave at you as you drive past them down the road.