Last year, on this same day I posted on my Tumblr blog site that I would be challenging myself to blog every day for the month. I wanted to explore; do things I had never done, wanted to do more of, was scared to do, hated to do, etc. Because it was Leap year, I called it the Leap Year Challenge found at https://josieville.tumblr.com/leapyear.
The first day I declared, “So I’ve got 29 days to do some ‘leaping’ around, starting today February 1st. And this is my first leap, blogging. I hope to use this as my means of accountability to leap every day.” By the end of the month, I had gained confidence in blogging and more importantly had experienced meaningful activities to live each day to the fullest. What I was not completely aware of at the time, was that Leap Year Challenge had ignited a spark inside of me for change.
Fast forward one year and what was once a small spark turned into a flame. After six and ½ years at Loyola Marymount Universities, I was saying goodbye. To date, this has been my biggest and bravest leap ever. My new chapter includes
- Focusing fulltime on my doctoral program at California Lutheran University, an Ed.D in Higher Education Leadership
- Serving a graduate assistant at CLU, supporting a faculty member with their research.
- Keeping up with my YouTuber husband, aka EpicLLOYD.
My plan from there???
If you would have told me a year ago this would be the beginning of my 2013, I would have de-friended you on Facebook. The thought of my life without work, a title, an endless to-do list or a consistent paycheck was not conceivable. Not in my vocabulary. Never.
But, as it turns out, my life has a hilarious way of proving me wrong. Case in point, I remember as early as elementary school declaring that I had zero interest in visiting California. Drive-by shootings, earthquakes, traffic, Hollywood, no thanks! But here I am, not only living in California but was engaged, married, and bought a home here. Ironic?
So here I leap, challenging myself to blog for a total of six weeks, a little over 40 days. I am considering this entire process an experiment, and like a good researcher, I am using this blog to document it. The amount of change in my life is obvious, it’s exciting and scary but I think I love it! On the last day at LMU, I posted a message on my Facebook wall which sums up the start of this journey and Leap Blog. I’ve included it below, feel free to click directly on the image for a larger view.
Whether you are reading this because you are my number one fan (thanks mom), are curious if I will have a mental breakdown from leaving my job, or are a fangirl of my husband. I can’t promise the posts won’t be free of grammatical errors, faulty links, or odd formatting.
