Many things have happened in the year and half since my last post -- including a new job and a new town but those are only the most recent.
I'm finally in a place where I feel I can blog again, and honestly the push to start it again comes from someone I just met at my new job. He sat in on my interview and I mentioned that I had a blog but hadn't updated it in a while. After I got hired he kept asking if I had taken the time to start it up again, and even though I wonder if it was just idle conversation, it has pushed me to start writing again.
I also think the drive to pick up the metaphorical pen again is due to the place I'm currently in at this point in my life. Many people probably don't know, but the previous two years were some of the lowest points I have ever had -- and that's coming from a Georgia Tech graduate!! About half a year after starting my job at the lab, I found myself in deep in a cloud of depression and anxiety -- to the point where I was threatened of losing my job over it. I found myself at the doctor's office crying to a doctor I didn't know about how I just couldn't do it, and by it, I meant everything. She diagnosed me with OCD and prescribed me some medications. It took a lot to face the facts that I needed help and couldn't just "power through it" without medication. She told me about triggers and how facing my first northern winter could've done it. She recommended I take the medication for as long as I needed, but would eventually want to wane me off once I was at a stable place to see how I was doing. I stopped taking my medication 3 weeks ago -- after being on it for nearly a year and a half. I got away from the toxic in my life that was causing panic attacks and I feel comfortable in my own skin now. I feel comfortable at work -- which is not something I felt since I left my job at Georgia Tech. I think I stopped blogging a year and a half ago, because it was hard for me to write about the beauty in life when I couldn't see it myself -- and I'm so thankful to be where I am now.
My advice to anyone who feels like they are in a similar situation is that it gets better. You will get better. Just take everything one day at a time and you will be able to change your situation and get yourself somewhere you need to be. As much as I wouldn't wish my experiences at the lab on anyone, I'm glad they happened. If it weren't for them, I wouldn't know how good I have it now.
So here's to a new start. A new chapter in my life. A new beginning.