STYLE HAWKING

Take a break! Seems simple enough, right? Try it and I promise it’s a little harder than you think. For someone like me who is constantly going 1,000 mph, it can be hard to just stop and smell the roses. Sometimes taking a break means stopping something you love so that you can appreciate it more. This was me this last summer. No direction or idea of what I wanted to do, while dealing with some family and personal issues. Note: I am figuring out that you never quite figure it out.

I am 30 years old and not exactly where I thought I would be when I pictured myself when I was young. Waitressing, surfing and pretty much being a beach bum… sounds amazing right!? Well I didn’t really feel amazing. I didn’t really feel like I was ready to just relax into the easy living quite yet. It didn’t feel like I earned that quite yet. Even blogging, which was something I love was burning me out. Constantly keeping up with buying the latest, body image shame and just feeling like it wasn’t really going anywhere.

Let’s go back about 9 months. Laid off from my job and only life I know how to function in, thrown into absolute stillness and learning to cope with my anxiety from an extremely high pressure boss and job. Eventually landing into waitressing, which I still refer to as my “rebound boyfriend” and now here. By the way, I am not knocking waitressing, I think this is an amazing job and has get benefits for a flexible lifestyle. I am still doing this while I am school and it has been a lifesaver. But I realized this summer that I need something more, more challenging, more health benefits and just more stability for the long run. Call it growing up, I guess. So I decided to pursue nursing.

So why decide to go back to school? Why go into a career I know nothing about? Why take a break from blogging? I asked myself all these questions and this is where I landed. I started my prerequisites to try and get into nursing school. Fast forward four moths and I am one week from finishing my first semester of classes. Diving head first into this new life and challenge. Something in me said, what is the harm of trying? I am not doing anything anyway, so I might as well be learning and working towards a goal. So I did it, I signed up for Fall semester and started. And let me tell you, going back to school at 30 is not easy. You have to re-learn how to learn, surrounded by early 20-somthings, its intimidating.

So why is taking a break a good thing? Sometimes you need to reset, remember why you are doing what you are doing or figure out what you are doing. This summer I decided to abandon the blog and my responsibilities. Trust me, I felt so guilty, but I used this time to be with my family and travel. Take some risks like getting back into surfing, going on an adventure to Costa Rica, learn to deal with my OCD with our house under construction from a flood. It allowed me to just focus on what I wanted to do and remember why I even started blogging.

Several weeks later, inspiration struck and I was back. Kicking ass in school and ready to shoot some looks again. And you know what? I feel so much better about everything. Knowing what you want to do and going full force into it is so rewarding. I was able to reconnect and reminded myself why I started blogging, which is to share my looks and brands that I love with all of you. Sure I would love to make this a career, but I can’t get too caught up with that. For now, it is my creative outlet and a way to connect with people who share similar interests in fashion. To work with companies and brands, and meet some amazing new people along the way.

If there is one thing you get out of this post, it’s that taking a break is something I highly recommend. You never figure out exactly what you want to do, but just move forward with whatever you want to do and try. You will never regret learning something new.

xo