Safe to say that within the last month or two life for me has changed almost completely; one minute I thought I knew what path I was about to head down and had made certain plans and was ready to execute them. But then before I knew it those plans got changed quite a bit (not in a bad way though) and I find myself here today. You may (or may not) have noticed that my blog posts and Instagram uploads have not been anywhere near as consistent as they were a month or two ago and I haven't been as in love with the content I have been putting out, and all this change is certainly the reason for that. So I thought I'd do a little catch up post on what's been going on with me, why my posting has been lacking and how I'm planning to tackle this in the future (hopefully).
Let's start with what I was originally planning on doing.
As January of this year came to an end, I knew it was time to change up what I was doing. I was no longer going to be studying full-time, but instead dropping down to part-time and my freelance work wasn't quite at a level where I could completely support myself on it, so I knew it was time to get another job. I originally started applying for any type of casual or part-time work in my town of Newcastle so I could continue to live here and begin gathering some money together to go on a trip (I really want to head to the USA next and that is certainly still on the cards, but instead of heading around June/July this year as I planned, I think now that will have to wait till 2019). Nothing was really happening on that front and the end of the month was getting closer and closer, and honestly I started freaking out a bit.
So I began acquainting myself with the idea that I would have to do something that up until that point I had never really wanted to do; move to Sydney. Jobs in Communication in Newcastle aren't exactly in abundance like they are in Sydney, and if I was going to move myself into that chaotic place it was going to be in a job that could potentially lead me into a career in Communications (also, financially, I was going to need a good full-time job to live there). Up until now I had thought maybe I could grow my freelancing work to a point that I could completely live off it, but there's no denying it's a tough gig and life just hadn't thrown me the right cards at this point for that to come together. So I began madly applying for full-time work in Sydney and began planning my move. I started getting call backs and interviews and was completely set on the idea that I was going, and honestly I became excited about it and no longer scared or resentful of moving to the bigger city. Despite the many interviews and call backs, the process of finding out about whether or not I had a job was proving to be a long and drawn out one, and I was at this point running out of time before my study allowance stopped and it was making me somewhat anxious and unsure what else I could do at this point.
Then one night, out of the blue, I got a LinkedIn message from a local recruitment company that helped everything suddenly fall into place. I won't go into where I work or exactly what I do for privacy reasons but within a week I went from having no job prospects and thinking I might have to move home, to having a full-time journalist job here in Newcastle (while I was getting excited about having a big change and moving to Sydney I'm certainly not mad I have the chance to stay in this town I love).
Within the first week of starting my job I also moved house. I had planned to live on my own again if I moved to Sydney, and with my mind pretty set on the idea, I decided to still carry that out here. So I moved into a new two-bedroom place closer to the beach. I love my place, but with a lot of change happening at once, I certainly haven't had a lot of time to sit back and relax, let alone keep up with my blogging.
Also, just as I settled in, we hit a really busy week at work. If I wasn't feeling behind on sleep already, that week certainly got me there, and I felt it the week after as I started to get sick - another thing slowing me down and keeping up with everything here.
I've never really worked full time hours until this point, and while I'm loving my job and not minding the hours, balancing that with online content and also still completing the rest of my Masters and trying to get to the gym and be social, proved tough. As of right now I no longer do any freelance work because I found the time just wasn't there, unless I wanted to have no real me-time which I think health-wise, mentally and physically, is not a sustainable option.
So here we are today. I've been at my new job for I think almost a month and I feel settled there now and in the flow with how everything works and less like 'that new person'. My new place is also slowly starting to come together and I can't wait to finish off some of the rooms and share some blog posts about it.
As I'm getting back into a routine I'm hoping to keep up with posting on here three times a week. I haven't quite yet gotten back into the swing of posting daily on Instagram, and I certainly still miss days on here every now and then; so I'm hoping for a little while longer you can bare with me and stick around as I post as often as I can.
Life has a changed a lot, but as they say, change is as good as a holiday, and I'm certainly not upset with any of the changes that have come my way in the last few months. Even when it all happens at once and it can almost feel to overwhelming, always remember that you will get back into the swing of things soon enough and then you'll find a moment to appreciate the change and this rollercoaster that is life.
