Last Day at My Third Gym

Today marks my last day at my third gym.

It also marks my last day of being a non-manager in a corporate business in five years.
Next week I enter into management again for a business other than my own, and my fourth gym in a year and a half. I've met a lot of exciting people, thoughtful people, passionate people and even a couple mentors during my time at this current company so far, and I look forward to taking this next step and reaching out to have an impact on even more people.

It's been an interesting road to get here. I was just a couple months shy of 19 when I entered my first management role, just before I started working for Nordstroms. I was promoted into department management about six months after I began working there, and stayed in managerial roles until five and a half years ago, when I stopped working full time and began my decline into illness.

Perhaps my aspirations were too high when I thought I could advance as quickly and easily into this new industry fresh off two years of mostly bed rest. My personality traits of persistence, stubbornness, perfectionism, impatience, and my new-found traits of happiness and positivity certainly got a work out during this time. Patience, for the most part has been my teacher. We definitely have a love-hate relationship. More like it loves me and I hate it, but I appreciate the values it has shown me. You respect the process more.

Alas, I won't be out celebrating this weekend. A quiz on Monday will have me playing catch up to studying, and begin brainstorming for a term paper while I begin to pick out classes for spring semester. This of course is more than okay with me: I have a wine tasting trip coming up soon, the holidays (hopefully with my family at some point), NYE, my birthday and Las Vegas, so I need all the hibernation & saving pennies I can get.

Workouts are in the works for December. Let me rephrase: Hardcore workouts. The last couple of months of the year are the slowest time for gyms, but not for me: Yes, you want to eat lots of delicious holiday food, but you also want to look amazing in your festivity outfits, right? My celebration season ends about a week after New Years too, so all the more reason for me to keep going hard through the end of the year. I'll be sharing some of my journey and ideas for you to keep inspired during these cold winter nights.

Ready for this next chapter. :)

~Samantha Marie