I started to write last night but fell asleep with the laptop in bed and the lights on. I really hadn’t written much other than “today was my first day in my new position as the Executive Director at the United Way of Blair County.” I like to begin blog posts with short-ish declarative statements. It’s a style choice. That was going to be my statement of fact. I wasn’t sure where the post would go other than to swerve away from talking about my actual work and into some other territory. I never got there.
When I started this blog a year ago, I made the unwritten promise to myself to maintain a line between my personal life and my professional life. More accurately, I would blog about the personal as a way to explore self and practice writing but refrain from venting about in-the-moment work challenges (though I might write about positive experiences). Early on, I wrote about how awesome my colleagues were in sending me off to Memphis. During my time at the Blues Foundation, I wrote about the experience of seeing and working the impressive spectacle that is the International Blues Challenge.
I expect to keep that promise to myself to maintain that line between personal and professional – even if the world we live in seems to blur it more and more every day. I suppose if I’m inclined to write anything related to work, it will be general and speculative or more related to mood. As an example, yesterday I was up at my normal time, but anxious to get started. I knew I wouldn’t be able to sit on the balcony and read – my mind just wasn’t going to be in that space, so I hopped on started orienting myself to the organization at 6:30 in the morning. I think that was going to be the post I would have written last night – the excitement of the new. No matter how many times you start a new job, the feeling is always a little like the first day of school: new people to meet, new routines to learn and establish, new relationships to build.
This morning, I was up even earlier than yesterday – oddly woken by a dream about my last job – their new executive director also started yesterday. I wrote for a little bit (the bulk of this post) and was online and answering emails by 6:30. I suspect if I have an adjustment to make, it will be in striking that time balance. Aside from some freelance work, I haven’t worked in the era of COVID – one in which many people new to working from home (and some balancing kids and online learning) have been trying to strike that balance for months…. I’m just hoping that if I sit down to write tonight, that I can stay awake past the first sentence.