I’ve been living in Ohio for two months now. Read about what I’ve been up to!
Well, friends, I’ve officially been a Midwest resident for over two months now, and it’s definitely been a rollercoaster. It was so tough for me to transition from working a 9-to-5 to a month-long vacation to being unemployed and then working a regular schedule again. So much has happened since I moved Ohio, and I’m so excited to spill the tea and let y’all know what I’ve been up to.
Side note: I’m also officially an Ohio resident, license and all. This was not by choice. In order to buy my car (I was previously leasing), I had to get an Ohio license in order to get my Ohio license plates. It was a whole thing, but here I am, an official Ohioan. Is that what people from Ohio call themselves? I don’t even know.
I’M A TEACHER
As a multi-passionate person, finding a job is one of the most anxiety-ridden tasks I’ve ever done. To say it was difficult to go from having a steady job for the majority of the past five years to unemployment is an understatement. There were many days and nights full of tears, self-doubt, and loss of self-worth. I was in a unique position in that I could start from scratch. I could find a job that combined the things I was passionate about and the skills that I had to offer. Before I even left Louisiana, I was applying to jobs, doing interviews, and getting a lot of rejection.
My first month in Ohio was spent jobless. I spent half of my day perusing the internet for jobs and the other half blogging. I finally stumbled upon the idea of working with kids because it’s something that I loved doing while I was working for Carnival Cruise Lines. I applied to three different daycare facilities, and I got the job at the first one I interviewed for. I’ve been working as a Lead Teacher for 3-5-year-olds at a daycare/preschool since September, and I’m so in love with so many parts of my job.
I love my kids. They are so sweet and so loving, and that was one of my favorite parts about working with younger kids on the ship. They just want to play and have fun, and they want someone to give them hugs and reciprocate the love they have to give. They’re so authentic and innocent because they don’t know any other way to be, and I enjoy being a part of molding the minds of these little people.
While I don’t love every aspect of my exact work situation, this job has opened my eyes to the possibility of becoming an elementary educator. I haven’t done the research or looked at the logistics or anything like that yet, but it’s been an idea playing in the back of my mind since I started to get the hang of things at work.
The positives:
1. I love my kids – It’s the best part of going to work everyday.
2. I get to be creative – I love having a job that allows me to combine my love for organizing and being creative. I get to create lesson plans, and I get to do creative activities with the kids that allow them to learn and play at the same time.
3. I feel like I’m making a positive impact – One thing that’s important to me is to feel good about what I’m doing and knowing that I’m contributing to society in someway. That’s one thing I struggled with in my last job. I felt like my job was to make the company money so that people can simply have more money. With this job, there isn’t a question about whether or not I’m making a positive impact.
4. I feel like I’m living more life – I have to get up super early in the morning to get to work, but I also get off work early, and then I have the rest of my day to do whatever I want to do, like blog, meet up with friends, read, catch up on a TV show, etc. I spend more hours awake than I used to, and I do more productive things with that time.
The negatives:
1. The pay – Financially, I know working at this particular place isn’t feasible long-term because of how much I make.
2. The commute – I have to drive 40 minutes to get to work each day. I’m not a morning person and having to get up early so I can drive for 40 minutes is the worst. It also sucks because I get off at 2:30 pm, which sounds great, but I still have a 40-minute drive home before I can get anything else done. I also have to fill up my gas tank multiple times a week, which is another negative on the pay factor. I don’t make much money, and I spend a good portion of what I do make on gas.
3. I have to get up super early – Not only do I have a 40-minute drive everyday, I also have to be at work at 6 am. That means I get up at 4:30 am to start my day. Again, I’m not a morning person, and I love my sleep, so this has been the biggest struggle for me.
4. I haven’t made any connections with my co-workers – One thing I loved about my last jobs working at a hotel and working on a cruise ship is that I had close relationships with a lot of my co-workers. That’s what made going to work fun, even on the hard days. Where I work now, it’s in a small town, and everyone grew up together, so everyone has a really close bond. I’m the only person that doesn’t have a local area code, and no one ever asks me about my weekend. No one has really tried to get to know me, and it’s just not fun to get up early and drive to a job where you don’t have anyone to talk to.
I’ve been exploring some options with my current job situation and my future career. Everything continues to be a question mark, but I’ll keep y’all updated as I make some decisions. I’m sure I’ll have some news by the next friDIARY π
WE HAVE A HOME
Finding a place to live was probably the easiest part about moving to Ohio. I love being organized, so before Kyle and I left Louisiana, I had a folder with information about potential places to live. We lucked out on our search when we got to Ohio because we went with the second place we visited. It had everything we were looking for, and it was within our price range, so there was really no question. Everything fell into place, and we’ve been working on making our first home as cozy as possible.
Now I’m just trying to convince Kyle that we should get a dog π
WE’VE TRAVELED
We’ve only been living in Ohio for two months, but we’ve already taken multiple trips, some together and a couple separately. Kyle has a sister who lives in Cleveland, so we went to visit her, her husband, and their son one weekend. Kyle’s parents live in Michigan, so they also came down to visit.
I spent a weekend in Houston reuniting with my college roommates for the Taylor Swift concert. It was incredible, and I’ve been meaning to write a post about it. Hopefully it’ll be comin atcha soon. While I was in Houston, Kyle spent another weekend in Cleveland with his fam.
We also traveled to Nashville for the long Columbus Day weekend to celebrate Kyle’s birthday. I’m in the midst of drafting that post, so crossing my fingers it’ll go live next week. It was Kyle’s first time in Nashville and my third, but we did a lot of things I had never done before, so it was a special weekend for both of us.
We’re also planning another weekend in Cleveland for Kyle’s sister’s birthday, and we’ll be spending Thanksgiving in Charleston with my family. I’m hoping to plan a trip to Canada since I’ve never visited before and possibly to some of the surrounding states I’ve never been to before either. We’re also hoping to go to Columbus soon and plan some things to do in Cincinnati. It’s nice living in a place that’s surrounded by so many cities that I’ve yet to explore.
MAKING FRIENDS
I’ve talked a little bit about my journey with BumbleBFF, and it continues to be my primary source for finding friends in the area. Making friends as an adult sucks, but having a social life is something that is important for me and my happiness, so I’ve been doing what I can to make sure I prioritize that.
I’ve made two friends on BumbleBFF that I’ve hung out with multiple times, and I’m excited for those friendships to develop from going out for dinner or drinks to coming over and drinking wine in our PJ’s. Now that the weather is getting colder, I just want to stay in my PJ’s all the time, so I need friends that want to do that too!
Kyle has some friends in the area, and he’s also made some new friends since we’ve been here thanks to some mutual friends, school, and working out at the CrossFit gym. It’s been a work-in-progress for both of us.
HALLOWEEN!
As y’all know, Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. I was so nervous that I wasn’t going to have much fun this Halloween since I haven’t made that many friends yet, but we ended up having so much fun because Kyle had some friends visiting for a couple weekends.
Ale-O-Ween
We went to an event called Ale-O-Ween, and the ticket price included a 4 oz. tasting glass that you took to several different booths to have filled with beer. I’m not a fan of beer, so I was nervous about not having any fun at this event, but I ended up finding a few different ones that I liked.
Kyle and I dressed up as Quailman and Quaildog, and he was definitely a crowd favorite.
Hauntfest
When Kyle’s old roommate came to town, we decided to dress up and head to an event in the Oregon District called Hauntfest. There were two stages with DJs and bands, food trucks, and bars in the area that had specials or just a free cover until a certain time. Kyle and I dressed up as Daisy and Donald Duck.
It’s hard to give a full update on what I’ve been up to the past two months, but if you’re curious as to what places Kyle and I have been loving in Dayton, be sure to check out this post. You can also follow my stories on Instagram for more recent updates.
What’s the best thing that happened to you this week?
friDIARY is a weekly series where I share tidbits about my life along with [probably too many] unfiltered photos and random thoughts, including the not-so-happy ones. Check back every Friday for a new post! Click here to read my friDIARY.
