I’m officially one week into my career break.
Sometimes online content surrounding career breaks includes the glamorous shots of cross-country RVing, solo trips to South America, or inspiring passion projects.
I love all of those ideas, but it’s not what I’ll be doing. Mine might be lackluster, but it’s what I really need.
And starting tomorrow, I’ll be signing off of social media for the month of April. There may be a cheat day or two, as there are a lot of family birthdays in April. Is it silly that grown adults get upset if you don’t publicly post for their birthdays? Yes. Will I still get flack for not doing it? Also, yes.
I digress, but one of the big goals of my break is to get bored. Yes, I will be working small home projects and trying to get outside on the trails, but I personally think I need to nearly wipe the slate clean for some mental clarity.
Social media has its pros, but I find myself getting spooled up over constant and inevitable arguments on social media that I’m not even involved in. Here’s one of the most recent examples:
On Instagram, I came across a really unique reel that featured a man on a small boat at sunset. He was reaching into the water, millions of large jellyfish just under the surface, using a long stick with a wire basket at the end. Think apple picker, if you’ve seen those tools. He was slowly scooping jellyfish out of the water and placing them in a vat on the boat. It was my favorite blend of serene and surreal, so I made the mistake of wandering into the comments section to see if I could find an explanation.
Long story short, I STILL don’t know what the man was doing because I couldn’t stomach sifting through the fights in the comments. Literally, a thread would start with something as benign as “Does anyone know what this man is doing? Is this for jellyfish population control? Are these jellyfish edible?”
It spiraled into the usual vortex of trolling, instigating, accusations (possibly warranted) of racism, vitriol, the usual. From a simple, innocuous question.
That’s not what sent me over the edge– I’d considered a break for a while, since so many people had suddenly bloomed into delightful political experts and armchair virologists over the last couple of years. It used to just be bad during election season, now we get it all the time.
But in all seriousness, it’s so easy to get sucked in, and aside from the unnecessary rises in my blood pressure from the online peanut gallery, I’ve wasted a crazy amount of my time over the years scrolling through content I don’t actually care about. It’s a huge time suck, and it makes me a little ill to think of all of the things I could have been doing instead that might have had some benefit.
What’s done is done, but it’s time for a change. I’ve been horrible about updating my Fueling Fire Instagram account anyway (my last few months of work realllllllly asked a lot of me), but I plan to document my break, however boring it might be, on here.
So here are some of the things I’d like to focus on while I’m not getting my panties in a twist over dumb shit I read online:
-Running/hiking/trail running (as long as my cranky knees will allow)
-Yoga. Years of desk work has also rendered my spine geriatric.
-Reading.
-Purging excess items in our home
-Going through my mom’s belongings. She passed nearly 4 years ago, and I still haven’t tackled some of it.
-Home projects. Reworking poorly applied drywall tape, installing a carpet runner on our stairs for our large senior dog that has issues on hardwood, updating a 1970s [pink] bathroom.
-LinkedIn Learning. Apparently, many libraries have an account where you can access courses for free with a library card!
In May, I’ll shift focus to obtaining part time work. More on that later.
See you here again soon (just not IG!)
-K