The Plan

The Plan, as in the 12-month-(or less, cross your fingers!)-escape-plan, is a plan to research, budget, and dream my way out of nursing and into a job that brings me at least some joy. I realize that many people dislike their jobs, and I also realize that no job can be 100% great 100% of the time. However, I am shooting for a more modest estimate of 80-90% great 50-60% of the time. Doesn’t that sound like the wish of a reasonable woman?

Topics for research: purchasing non-employer-sponsored health insurance; different options for teaching yoga; ways I can teach yoga to kids; the oh-so-subtle-and-controversial differences between Montessori, Waldorf, and Reggio-Emilia schools; freelance writing; journals I would be interested in writing for; graduate studies in nutrition; graduate studies in writing; graduate studies in early childhood education; graduate studies in library science; how Chris and I can travel on the cheap; good places to raise kids, preferably near mountains; more reading on neuroplasticity; meditation techniques; incorporating a meditation technique into our daily life; canning and preserving fruits and vegetables; how to eat fresh, organic food without going broke; and many more.

Topics for writing: “pre-diabetes – what is it?,” what do those cholesterol numbers really mean?, eating well on a budget, different types of yoga, humor in yoga, beekeeping – why is it do damn fascinating?, honey and health, meditation and the brain…Feel free to post any other ideas you’d like to read about here.

As you can see from the lists, my biggest goal is to think outside the cell that I’ve boxed myself into. I can be a practical, reasonable, responsible person without letting all the shoulds in my head lead me straight past go do-not-collect-$200 to the Woe Hole. What are the shoulds of the hour? Healthcare, mortgage, financial solvency. Welcome to the trifecta of adulthood. Of course, I don’t completely discount any single member of that awesome trinity, I just want to loosen their deathgrip on my conscience. Yes, we need healthcare, but can’t we figure out a way to get that healthcare without immediately needing said healthcare to heal the ulcers it gave us? Yes, the mortgage needs to be paid, but isn’t there another route to that payment? One with fewer tortuous, hairpin curves? And of course, we want to be financially responsible (maybe even financially responsible enough to paste kids into the picture sometime soon), but is our mental health really worth what we’re saving, right now?

I simply want to remember how to dream without despairing. I want what I want to not bring me such anxiety.