Disclaimer: I write this as I’m listening to a timely and favorite tune. I make a conscious effort not to share details of my personal life on my professional blog. Because of the events that occurred in my personal life this Spring, I was met with the great opportunity to shake up my professional life with an incredible new adventure. This post is my way of sharing what I’ve been up to and why I’ve been away for the past few months. 

Things change. Sometimes change creeps over you slowly and a year later, you experience that ‘ah ha’ moment when you finally recognize that something is different. Other times, change slams into you and shakes up your entire world. I experienced a huge life change this year in March. For the past 3 years, I have represented the wonderful San Diego chapter of SHRM at the annual Legislative and Employment Law Conference and Capitol Hill Advocacy Day in Washington D.C. I always look forward to this conference because I love the subject matter and appreciate having my voice an a Human Resources SME (subject matter expert) heard by those in Congress creating legislation, but have to prep myself to get my ass kicked with the amount of work that I will need to do during my down time (aka there is no down time) for my employer back in San Diego while engaged in all things SHRM and conference related. I’ve been operating as a Human Capital Strategist and Acquirer of Talent Department of One for the past 4 years which means there is no one to pick up the slack when I’m out of the office.

I flew across the country to attend #SHRMLeg 2016 and experienced 3 extremely productive, albeit stressful, days in DC while working before and after each conference day. That was followed by a quick 12 hours in NYC to deploy a people movement initiative. <My hardcore HR folks will read between the lines and figure out why I was in NYC.> 7 hours, 2 layovers and 2400 miles later, it was 11:30 pm and I was landing back in San Diego. I’d been traveling for hours and was exhausted. I was met at the airport by my (then) partner who decided to end our relationship 27 minutes after I landed…awesome. Any normal, not completely self-centered person would have waited until the next day to have a serious conversation about their relationship, but not this guy. No matter, this was one of the issues we had been struggling with, but I digress. Let’s keep it moving. I was exhausted from 4 intense days of learning, advocating and working and really wasn’t in the mood for a long drawn out conversation so I sent him on his merry way and crashed for the night.

The morning after…

I work up early, went for a run and was able to truly process what had happened over the previous 24 hours. Most people would assume that I would be focusing on the breakup with my partner but to be honest, I was really focusing on a different kind of breakup – one with what was feeling like a stagnant existence. I’d been living in San Diego for over 7 years and at the same job for 4. I enjoyed my job and the people I worked with, but I had been struggling with that SSDD feeling for about  year. San Diego never felt permanent to me and with the abrupt change in my personal life, I felt it was time to go for my professional dream. I always felt that if I wanted to challenge myself, stretch my HR knowledge and really be the most kick ass professional I can be, I would only be satisfied if I did it in the technology mecca of the world: Silicon Valley. I won’t bore you with the details of the next few weeks, but suffice to say, I spent some time writing down what type of organization I wanted to work with, did my homework, applied to a few select places and secured a role with a growing social products organization that serves a unique, and very dear to my heart, user group. 4 weeks later I was saying goodbye to my closest friends (really, these people are family), packing up my life into 28 boxes and moving 501.8 miles to the start of something new and exhilarating. It was San Francisco or bust!

Now that I’m past the 90 day hump at the new gig, I thought it was time to share what I’ve been up to as I get back into the things I love to do alongside of my job: working out, traveling, mentoring, reading and blogging. I have a few cool blog post ideas I’ve been throwing about and I’m looking forward to sharing those with you. Thanks for hanging in there with me friends. It feels good to be back.

-To New Beginnings…