I love the smell of a fresh month!

Ah, September! I always loved the beginning of autumn – going back to school, cooler temperatures, Indian Summer. Typically here in the Netherlands we’ll still have one or two good weekends with sun and everyone is starting something fresh and enjoying new beginnings. Personally, I too am starting something new, but I’ll tell you about that in a second.

So, I know I haven’t been consistently blogging lately and while I repeatedly say that this blog is really my story and can be written at any time, perhaps it helps get a bit more conversation going if I’m More consistent. I would really like that.

To be perfectly honest the last several months have been quite challenging. Yet also they’ve been a lot of fun and I’ve been all over the place and officially spent all of my travel money for this year, like down to EUR20. But, hey ho, I’ve had a great time spending it!

At the beginning of June I was let go from my job at work, but not let go from my contract. If that doesn’t make sense, it works like this: You can’t really get fired here in the Netherlands. You have a contract and you have to fulfill your duties of the contract. However, if you don’t, or you can’t, or it’s just not working out, your company has to pay you or make some sort of settlement to send you home. I went home for about two weeks until my manager could figure out with another department if my skills would be of some use to them. So, on the one hand, it sucked that I didn’t make that decision myself, however, my manager really wanted to help me and got me, albeit temporarily, another position in a different department. Everyone has been very good to me and it’s been a real learning experience of holding my head high even when it feels uncomfortable. I am looking for other work, internal and external, but I have time (until the end of April 2016) and hopefully something is going to happen soon that really suits me and the company who employs me (or the company I work for now. I have something in the pipeline, so cross your fingers for me!). So, that’s work. Oh and that couple of weeks was pretty much free vacation. Nice!

In July I went to Chicago as you know and I had an absolute blast. Not just running the race, but seeing my friends and just hanging out like I was one of the locals. I do miss living in a city like Chicago and maybe, if the time and environment is right, we (hubs and I) can move back. So nice having friends there. I miss my people. While I have great friends here in the Netherlands and I would miss them as well, there is nothing like having people in your life life that have been around for over 20 years. That we can just pick up where we left off, you know? It’s great.

Beginning of August I went to Dublin for the Rock ‘n Roll Half Marathon and I’m going to tell you about that SOON. It deserves a recap post! Once I got back from Dublin, two days later hubs, The Girl and The Boy and I went to Crete! It was our 3rd time to Crete and the second time to Stalis. We just really enjoy it there and lots of people recognized us and were happy to see us again! Family vacation is always somewhat challenging and, not gonna lie, we had our moments (who doesn’t???) but overall we had a good time.

So now we are officially back at work and back at school which leads me to…

I am officially a student again!! After I was let go from my job I had a long hard talk with myself and decided that this was the time, RIGHT NOW, to do what I want to do rather than what I have to do to pay my bills. About 15 years ago I enrolled in a Sports Massage Therapy course but, without going into the millions of reasons, I ended up quitting after about 3 classes. I have never stopped wanting to do this however, so I asked MY sports massage therapist where she went to school, I went to an Information Evening and I decided to do it. On Thursday I will start! It’s an entire school year, every Thursday night. I’m going to do it, I’m going to work hard, study hard and I’m going to take the exam and then I’m going to pass it and be certified. I am going to do what I love rather than what I have been doing for all these years that I don’t really like. I am nervous, I am scared, I am filled with all sorts of questions, but I am just going for it and trust the process.

That means that my WW assistant gig is over and I have stopped my monthly subscription to WW all together, at least for now. I’m going to go once a month, and just pay the EUR 12 to make sure that I have a check in point. I will miss my leader and my ladies (and a few gents) that I’ve gotten to know over the past year, but school is the same night and I can’t be two places at once!

I’m now a 4 weeks and 4 days until my next marathon and then two weeks later we go to Lisbon. I have loved all the experiences with running this year, but I’m ready to do less! I know, I know… I did this to myself!

So here’s to the beginning of autumn and the awesome month of September, which also happens to be my birthday month! YAY BIRTHDAY MONTH!!

Do you love fall? Do you have plans for the new season? Do you have new goals? Something you really want to accomplish?