New Beginnings

Changes of seasons always seem to bring with them a sense of starting anew. Everything is fresh and new again.

For some reason, the transition between Fall and Winter has often brought opportunities and major changes into my life. I started married life in October. My birthday is in November. And I have started several new jobs around this time in the past, including accepting the offer that brought us to Seattle for one of the biggest changes of my life.

And so it should have come as no surprise that this year the fall-to-winter transition brought with it a major life change as well.

Through September and October, I really focused on wrapping up work on my last section of the mosaic mural (for more detailed updates, check out our Arras mosaic blog). I began to get help with Ezra one or two days a week so that I could dedicate larger chunks of uninterrupted time to work on it, and within a matter of weeks I wrapped my last section up.

And thank goodness I did! Because it opened the door to me considering and wondering about what comes next, and opening my eyes to a wonderful new opportunity.

On the first snowy day of the year, I made my way into my new office to start a new job, and a new chapter of my life.

Everything about this job was a bit serendipitous. On the day that I opened my mind to looking for a part-time job, Artshine, a mobile art class company, posted that they were looking for a General Manager. This seemed too good to be true, so I emailed the owner to ask for more info. I wasn't sure how to approach my request to only work part-time hours, and then he sent the job description which said it was meant to be part-time... with summers off!

This job brings together all the parts of my life: my business education and experience, my love of art, and my love of kids. I love that every part of my past is an asset to this role and organization. It feels like my entire journey was leading me here. It feels like all that work I have done and all the time I took to understand my true self and to be okay with not knowing what comes next was so worthwhile, and that same flexibility and exploration is what allowed me to be open to this opportunity when it came along. And best of all, this organization is structured as a Social Enterprise where the profits go to their sister not-for-profit side that provides free and subsidized art classes to those in need. So not only am I excited about the type of work I will be doing, I feel so good about the impact it will have on people's lives.

I am sad that this chapter of being home with Ezra is coming to an end, because this is seriously my favourite age, but I'm so happy that I still get to have a couple of days each week home with my boys so we can still do some fun programs, and that we'll get to spend summers together. I am so lucky that we already had a vacation planned and got to do a family getaway before I started my new gig (more on that another day). I feel some guilt that Ari had me to himself for 18 months before he started daycare while Ezra only had me for 14, but we were so lucky to find the perfect arrangement for him until he starts in March. My heart wants to both break and burst at the same time when I walk in the door at the end of the day and Ezra crawl-runs to me and gives me approximately 15 sloppy, open-mouth kisses. But mostly I know that this is what's best for me.

When I left the room at the end of my interview, one of the board members said "it's so rare that someone checks all the boxes." I feel exactly the same way. And I had some very difficult boxes to check. This job checks them all. I am so excited about this new beginning!