Those of you that already connected to me, know that I love sports and therefore went to have a career in it. For ten years, I have worked in Intercollegiate Athletics and helped to have an impact on a number of young men and women’s lives. I’ve been truly blessed to spend my entire career at institutions within the Power Five Conferences and work with and learn from some amazing individuals. I knew my end goal and what was needed to get there, so yeah we moved and moved and moved.

This has been our most eventful journey. Starting when Rhiyan was two years old and now she’s almost 13. We have lived, worked, and attended schools in:

Gary, Indiana –> Bloomington, Indiana (Indiana University – Go Hoosiers; earned my Masters here) –> Columbus, Ohio (The Ohio State University) –> Cincinnati, Ohio (University of Cincinnati – Go Bearcats; earned my BBA here) –> Morgantown, West Virginia –> Fort Worth, Texas –> Bradenton, Florida.

WHEW!!! We moved every year for three years early in my career. I made sure each move was definitely worth the change for both of us. If you haven’t picked up on what I’m dropping yet, it’s just the two of us. Single parenthood is hard but it’s our normal. Then you add the maybe one week off the entire year because you work in sports and its still our normal. This is the only world we know together. She’s still alive so I’m doing something right.

I never thought to do this but as she gets older, it may be best to have Rhi give her POV of all the moves. Yes she was younger, but she’s very mature for her age. I would love for her to share how she was included in the decisions to move and her feelings when leaving each location. Look out for a future post.

So that brings us to now living and working and attending school in paradise. We are in a spot where people come to vacation. How great is that! We’ve only been here for 6 months now but there is something about this place that fills me with joy. I’m at a place in my life and career that I need balance. There are so many articles about work/life balance and I’m sure if you work in any company you’ve attended a professional development seminar about it. But it is true, you do need to find the balance or you’ll experience burnout. That happened to me and forced me to make a hard decision. While making a list of pros and cons (yeah I’m that type of person + colorful post-it notes everywhere), I realized the most important was the kid. Being able to enjoy the dreadful teenage years that were upon us while still enjoying working in sports was at the top of my list. I always say, everything I do is for her. Now it’s more than providing things, I need to provide my time and experiences.

So far, she’s gone to her first beach — Dont Judge, we have lived up north and it snows more than just winter months. She has a higher respect for wildlife, more specifically white tigers. She has traded in sports for her love of dance — more of this will come when the school year begins. And did I mention, she turns 13 soon. This boggles me more than her I think.

So I would like to say this move has been the best. I’m hoping and praying it is our last because it feels so good to be able to finally feel like I made it.