Triathletes know all about transition. It's that time in the race when you make a shift to the next phase and you try to do it in the best way possible. If you do it well, you move on to the next step with the best chance of success.
I know all about transition. I'm right in the middle of it, trying to make the rest of the race great.
The past two years have been something else. So much change, heartache, challenge, and learning. I started a demanding new job, had very major surgery, and came to the end of my marriage.
It is now the bitter end of a long, brutal winter here. I'm single and I live alone (although I see my children often and I am on very good terms with my ex-husband). In terms of my career, I've come to the realization that, even though nursing has given me a lot of opportunities in my lifetime, it is not the place for me anymore, and so I no longer feel I belong in my job as a nursing professor.
However, as I reflect on this time in my life, I know that where I am right now is a period of enormous possibility. I have shed some things that I no longer need and am ready to move on. At this time, of all times, I can be anything, do anything, start over in any way imaginable. I don't have to live in this climate anymore, I can re-shape my career easily into something outside of nursing, I can meet a new partner to share it all with.
Funny thing is, through all of this, triathlon has been the constant. It's been my joy and therapy and it has given me some amazing, supportive, fantastic friends who make my life very good. It has taught me about perseverance, accomplishment, and efficient transition. No matter where I go or what I do, it will always be part of my life for all of the ways it teaches me.
