Where have I been?
No where. I've been here in Galway. I didn't just decide to stop blogging and run off to find myself in Connemara. I left my job at Cara back in July and started working with Lancome and Clarins in Matt O'Flahertys.
Why did I stop posting?
Well, a number of reasons really. 1) I was so uninspired and unmotivated. I promised myself from the day I started this little blog that I would never force myself to post things just for the sake of it. 2) I realised pretty early on that I wasn't happy in Cara and I suppose that contributed to the lack of inspiration/motivation. 3) When I started looking for new work, I very quickly realised that having a blog was seen as something to "control" by employers. I can see where they were coming from in a way. I work in the cosmetics industry so I'm lucky in the sense that I get to try out a lot of new things. Obviously I wasn't going to like everything and naturally, they didn't want to have an employee giving a bad review to one of the products/brands that was carried by the business. I didn't want to lose out on an opportunity from having a blog so I pushed it to the side.
What am I doing?
The answer to that my friends is that I have absolutely no idea. Well, sort of. I left Cara and started working for Matt O'Flahertys. I'm not going to lie to you, Matt's was such a good move. Almost instantly they started teaching me things and had a genuine interest in developing me as an experienced consultant. I was a lot more content but that quickly went away. I thought the problem was just the job. It wasn't. I realised that even though I was out of Cara, I was still looking for something bigger and better. Just for fun, I started looking at jobs in Dublin. Before I knew it I was making it through 2, 3 or 4 rounds of interviews for different brands. Which brings us to now. Almost three weeks ago I was offered a job as a Cosmetic Team Manager for a fantastic brand. I've decided not to mention the name of the brand publicly just from how I've seen employers react to blogs in the past. Those of you who know me personally (which is most of you) will know any way.
Where am I going?
I will be moving to Leopardstown, Dublin in two weeks to start my new (scary) life. My boyfriend lives up there and I have a good friend who's been living up there for a while so I won't be entirely alone. Again not going to lie, I cried every night for the first two weeks after getting the job. If it wasn't the stress of finding a place it was the thoughts of leaving everyone I loved, what if I wasn't good enough, what if I didn't have enough money, etc. I have since calmed down and realised that I will, in time, be fine.
Why have I started posting again?
I guess it's because that for the first time in quite a while I am fully content. Yes I wake up at night and panic slightly over the prospects of my impending future but it's the kind of fear I think I've needed for a while. As horrible as this is going to sound, things here in Galway were just too easy and I'm a person who needs to be constantly challenged in order to develop. I could also feel myself settling. I very quickly got scared of becoming that person who spent their evening looking on their facebook timeline at all their "friends" doing exciting things and thinking to myself "I could have done that".
So there you go. I can't promise scheduled postings or consistency because the truth is that I have no idea what the future holds. I'm just going to let myself feel the flow and try to live in the moment. And if all that leads to some interesting blog entries then I guess we'll all be in for a little laugh. I do have some ideas for posts that I think that a lot of you enjoy (considering that they're brutally honest). So here's to the next couple of months!
Much Love,
Shannon.
xoxo
