Re-defining Myself

byKwilliams6

262 followers

6 years ago

Defining Moments

Looking back at my life, I realize that I derived my identity more from what I did, than from who I was, or rather, who God made me to be. I'm sure that you can identify with this, at least to some degree. This past year at Wealthy Affiliate has led me to some introspection and, I dare say "soul-searching".

Throughout the years I have found my identity in being wife and partner to my brilliant husband who built and developed a restaurant concept into a lucrative and thriving business. Known all over our area as the "Pizza Family", our children all had the unique opportunity to work in the family business gaining valuable insight and experience which would impact the rest of their lives. During this time, I also worked full time as an ER Nurse, home-schooled my four children, was involved with church activities and was a distance runner.

Things were going along nicely. We designed and opened up a second restaurant which was the prototype for our franchise plan. I was working at a busy ER in the Salt Lake Valley where I had been selected to be on the opening team for the first Satellite ER in Utah (my dream job), and I was training for my third marathon. Things were tenuously balanced and they were defining me quite nicely, or so I thought. Unbeknownst to me, things were about to change drastically.

At work I began dropping things. My fine motor movement was deteriorating, I was in pain most of the time, and I was losing arm strength. Long story short, I ended up having a triple level fusion in my cervical spine (neck). Needless to say, this drastically affected my work and my ability to run. I viewed this as a temporary set-back and worked hard at getting strong enough to return to the job I loved and the only stress outlet I had..running.

As time went by, it became evident that I would not be able to function at the level I previously had. But being the tenacious woman that I was, I pushed through the pain in order to continue working and especially to keep running because after all, that's who I was, a Nurse and a Runner. Well all that tenacity led ultimately to my disabled status.

This season of re-definition occurred between the years of 2008 - 20011, while we were concurrently struggling to keep the doors of our once successful restaurants open during the economic recession. By 2011, I was no longer running and we were no longer business owners. We made the decision to move back to Northern CA to be near family and begin a new chapter in our lives. I was able to work one more year and then I became permanently disabled.

Letting Go And Starting Over

I had spent several years trying to justify who I was and looking for a job that I could do from home at my own pace. Finally, in January 2018, I stumbled across Wealthy Affiliate. Being at the tail end of the Baby Boomer generation, I had not grown up with computers and therefore was not exactly tech savy. I approached this program with caution and with the intent to "just learn' what I could from it. Here I am nine months later, having just completed level two of the training. I have my first website up and running, ranked by Google, and growing day by day in a Niche that I love. Come check it out sometime and leave some feedback @ www.pawsitivelypoodle

My progress here at Wealthy affiliate has been slow but steady. The literal goldmine of instruction and encouragement here has been a huge blessing to me and has helped me to let go of my past way of thinking and just grow, as Karen. Not "Karen the Nurse", or" Karen the Runner", just me, the way God made me to be now. I've learned much, cried a few tears of frustration in the process, but most of all, I've met an amazing network of people who are genuinely kind, supportive and encouraging.

Going forward, my goals are 1.) To become a helpful member of WA like the many here who have taken the time to help me. 2.) Finish all the training modules and gain a better grasp of Web-building mechanics 3.) Grow my website to a point that will support affiliate links 4.) Get better at developing content 5.) Expand into building websites geared toward helping people medically 6.) And last but not least, I'd like to make some money during the process.

I really want to thank Kyle, Carson, and all of those Wealthy Affiliate members who have graciously taken the time to answer questions, be encouraging and to all those who have attributed to the overall positivity of this community. You all have given me hope and a new definition of myself.