Lesson of the Day: Change...Embrace It!

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I have been in the throes of hard-drive preparation for another assignment. There’s no easy way to describe the period of time in which the window opens for another assignment. It requires patience, perseverance, and trust that you’ll end up

• in the right place
• with the right people
• doing work you enjoy.

In the back of my mind, I replay the thought that I am really going to miss this assignment. I have made such good friends and enjoyed many new experiences. I have spent one of the best years of my life here. But I’m just not ready to settle down and go "perm."

Here’s how it works.

My recruiter sends me a list of the openings in the locations in which I am interested. I want to see if there were openings near my parents in Missouri/Kansas and also in northern California. The list reveals no current openings close to Mom and Pops in the Midwest. One option down, I concentrate on California.

My recruiter submits my information to several skilled nursing facilities (SNFs). It takes time.

This is when patience is a virtue. Some managers are on vacation; some SNFs are interviewing other travelers who have submitted their backgrounds before me. There are days in which you think you will be interviewed, and then days in which you think you will have an answer.

Then you don’t!

After 10 days of cat and mouse, I've made a decision.

Where Am I Headed?

I will travel three hours north and west of my current location and settle in a small fishing town right on the Pacific Ocean!!

The harbor, minutes from my new place...

I am thrilled! I have always wanted to live near the Ocean…

The beautiful Pacific close to dusk

and they want an OT who can start a new program.

I am their girl.

This appears to be a SNF that hasn’t had an OT for a long time, if ever. The thought of that generates all kinds of questions in my mind. Will they be open to what it takes for me to build a program?

I ponder these questions while sitting at the Fish House overlooking the Bay eating a hot cup of clam chowder and watching the fog set in.

Surreal. Sitting on the bay under the bridge at the fish house...

....and, then, instead of worrying about the "what-if's," I take a deep breath of the cool, salty air and simply sink into the moment.

Change...embrace it!