Changing Directions

Photo courtesy of
Mandi Murfin Photography

I've been threatening to start a blog for quite a while now, but the time has finally come. There are many, many subjects floating around in my mind and most of them involve our family's relocation from Raleigh to Mount Airy, North Carolina just over three years ago. It was a purposeful, strategic move and probably one of the best decisions we've ever made. That is not to say that we haven't experienced some significant bumps along the way, but I am thankful every day that we were able to make this change.

In addition to our move, I also changed careers. After 15 years in economic development in Raleigh, I quit my job for the move. When we first moved to Mount Airy, I had the opportunity to take a break for about 7 months, focus on getting us all settled in a new place and figure out what I wanted to do next. The opportunity to get back into teaching presented itself and Mount Airy has one of the best high schools in the country, so I decided to go back into the classroom after a short 15-year break. As you can imagine, that has been another huge life-changing experience which I'm sure I'll wax philosophical about at some point as well. 

Finally, I decided that changing my hometown and my career wasn't enough. I also wanted to lose weight and become more physically active. (How I went about getting started will be another blog post for another day.) I made a list of all the things I had tried in the past or knew I wouldn't stick with for more than a week and ended up with a very short list of options. (Honest self-assessment is one of my strengths.) I ultimately decided to try running and began the Couch to 5K program in July 2011. I lost 50 pounds and ran the Mayberry Half Marathon last November. I still don't really consider myself a "runner" most days, but running has definitely changed me. 

And so we begin...