As Neale Donald Walsch’s writes in his book, Conversations with God: An Uncommon Dialogue: “the deepest secret is that life is not a process of discovery, but a process of creation” (Walsch, 20). This truth has been brought home for me in this latest transition in my life. After 10 years of working for Lutheran Social Services, I have moved on.
It was the right time to leave for a variety of reasons, and I have no regrets. I left feeling proud of the work I had done in raising awareness and funds for the agency. I know this is a good thing for me, because it is giving me the chance to take a fresh look at what I want to do in the future. If I had continued on at LSS, I would have worked for the next six years or so and then “retired.”
But fate intervened and new things have been set into motion. Perhaps I should have known that I was not meant to just comfortably move into retirement. Maybe the first sign was my decision to get a master’s degree in English. It took me four years, one course each semester, to do it, but I finally graduated this past summer. I loved (almost) every minute of the experience. It probably was the reason I stayed at LSS as long as I did. I like new challenges; I like starting up projects and building programs, and so I tend to get bored after about five years into a job. The intellectual stimulation of graduate school kept me going. It was a wonderful excuse to read, read, read … and write and engage in discourse; in other words, I was able to be the total nerd I love to be and in the company of other admitted and unapologetic nerds to boot!
So now what? TBD, but for now I’m entertaining lots of ideas, and I have one contract that will begin on Nov. 4 and take me through the end of 2014. Lutheran Services Florida has asked me to develop a PR plan for the agency. I will travel to its headquarters in Tampa and to its other offices throughout the state as needed to learn about its programs and goals. The agency wants to increase private fundraising and knows that it must first raise awareness of and involvement in the agency. I’m looking forward to putting what I’ve learned about promoting social service agencies to work for LSF.
I’m also continuing as an adjunct professor for a PR Writing lab at the University of North Florida. I’m currently in the middle of the Fall Semester and am signed up to teach Spring Semester as well. I enjoy being on the other side of the desk at my new alma mater, and I’m hoping there will be more opportunities to teach as time goes on.
Certainly, I am in the process of creating and being recreated. Life is good.
Karen J. Rieley 