It’s been a while. But I’m feeling a bit introspective tonight, so here we are.

How y’all doing?

You might not be aware since I’ve been MIA for so long, but I lost my job at the end of 2019. I spent the next three months applying of jobs left and right. Then as well all know, the world as we know it came to an abrupt halt. I had a couple interviews here and there and then nothing. The last year has been spent barely leaving home except to go get groceries and medications a couple times a month. I finally had a good interview last week, hoping that’ll turn out to be something positive as I had a lot of experience with the main tasks involved in the role. Hoping to hear something in the next couple of days.

So what’s been happening since the last time I took any time to write anything? Wait. Has it really been 5 years since I’ve wrote anything? For real? Well, I guess I’ve taken a few attempts at writing something substantial since then but those posts have lingered in the draft folder. Wow. Well, let’s see. I spent a week playing the role of a tourist around Washington DC and Virginia, touring the monuments, seeing old civil war sites and George Washington’s home, Mount Vernon, Thomas Jefferson’s home, Monticello, was absolutely amazing and educational. Spent several days in Chicago and Springfield, Illinois. While I was in Chicago I decided on a spur of the moment drive to South Bend, Indiana to visit Notre Dame which unknowingly just so happened to be the first time a concert had ever been held at the stadium there. Which of course had to be a Garth Brooks concert. Coincidentally, this meant that there was absolutely nowhere to park, walk and take pictures. That was a bummer and waste of 6-ish hours of driving. I was able to spend a day in downtown Chicago doing a couple tours which was definitely awesome and well worth it. I certainly look forward to going back there again. Going to Lincoln’s home and tomb in Springfield made for a fantastic overnight trip. If you ever have the time to go, I suggest it. Spent a couple days going through some locations in Colorado, including half-way-ish up Pikes Peak and then some of the Rockies.

Honestly outside of the various cities I’ve been to, it’s been a fairly insignificant 5 years. Which kind of feels a bit sad, to be honest. However, I certainly can’t complain that I haven’t been able to see some amazing things across this country and spend some time with amazing people while doing it. I most definitely look forward to the time when I can get back to doing it again.

Last year was the first time the annual ThyCa conference was virtual, it was supposed to be in Los Angeles. I definitely see the positives of having a virtual conference as it allows an absolute ton of people to be able to attend that can’t normally travel. However, it was also lacking that face to face, spontaneous conversation feeling that we normally have. For instance the last in-person conference was in Denver, I hosted a “game night” as an option at the same time as the annual banquet and auction. I hope the people that hung out and played games had a good time! I ended up talking to someone for quite a while afterwards, they shared some writing that they had done as well as some insight into their journey with thyroid cancer. I absolutely loved the time getting to know someone at this level. This type of interaction doesn’t seem to be possible during a virtual conference. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to catch up with them at some point in the future.

Ok, moving on.

Have you ever wondered what your life would be like if you had actually made a different decision? I definitely do. If I had told a person that I actually did want to get back into a relationship with them way back when. Where would I be today if that happened? Would I be married? Divorced? Would I have kids? Would I have been able to see the same things that I have? Experienced the same things? What different places would’ve been visited? I think about this a lot lately. It’s more or less something I think about more than anything else at this point. Like, I’m super happy that they’re in the place they’re in now. But…. What could’ve been?