Time Out for Mental Health
This week I needed a break
Ok, so this week’s post isn’t going to be technical, and I know I had set myself up for the 3rd part of my current short series of “Connecting your React app to Redux”, but I would be lying if I didn’t tell you that this week I just needed a break. For my mental health, for my sanity, for the health of my relationships, and for other reasons.
If I were to sit here and tell you that my past 8 months post-bootcamp graduation had been easy, that would be (please excuse my language) one hell of a Fenway Park-sized lie. It has been rough: for not only me but my family as well. I’m mourning the loss of my grandfather, and caring for my parents as much as I can to help them through it, helping my husband with the loss of his childhood home, the pandemic, and reconciling that my life has taken an extreme turn from where I had thought and had tried to plan that I would be at this point in my life. Now pile on top of all of that, job searching, and trying to change careers and enter into the realm of tech as a “newbie” with no background in computers or programming or a traditional bachelor’s degree.
These past 8 months have been really really rough and it has taken everything that I have to do to just try to stay on track, with what little track I have. And there have definitely been times where I have wondered what the heck I have gotten myself into. I try to listen to all of the advice that I’m able to source. I try to focus on some of the courses and the learning that I know I need to keep up with. I try to make sure that I’m still coding at least some of the time, although I truly know that I should be coding every day. I try to meet the requirements for my school’s career coaching program every week. And I try to meet my state’s unemployment requirements every week.
It’s a lot to try and keep up with on a day-to-day basis, along with dealing with life outside of job searching. So this week, I kind of decided, without really consciously deciding, that I needed a mental break week. So how did I spend my time, if I wasn’t really focused on doing the menagerie of things that I’ve been doing for the last 32 weeks?
I baked some carrot cake cupcakes and Ghirardelli brownies for a charity dinner that I was invited to for Left Behind K9. I worked on downsizing my garden as I get ready for the winter lull. I worked on some crochet projects. And I worked on my 1972 Charger and finally got it running again for the first time in about a decade. I chose to occupy my time with things that bring me joy this week. Things that I’ve done since I was a kid or, in the case of the Charger, are learning to do. Right now, at this particular moment in time, these things helped to calm my mind down a bit and helped me unwind from everything that has felt like a chore.
Now don’t get me wrong, I do have a love for coding, which I found through my bootcamp, and I fully intend on pursuing and enjoying it as a career choice. But I needed a break; let’s call it a vacation. For me, I think it’s important to recognize that I was getting burnt out, and needed to take a step back for just a little while. I also think it’s important for you, dear reader, to be able to recognize when you need a break as well. And neither of us should be ashamed for saying “Hey, I need some me time”.
So while I enjoyed my little vacation, I’m hoping that come tomorrow I will have a renewed vigor and be able to jump in at least a little bit deeper with trying to break into tech and successfully change careers. Until next time dear reader, I hope you have the space to take some “me time” and enjoy some of this world around you however you enjoy and choose to do so.
