Climb every mountain – What Emma did next, part 2

Leaping back into the work ‘world’ is a tricky thing. For the first time, you have to balance work life and family life. Remember the good ‘ole days when you could work whatever hours you wanted and then pick up a meal for one or two on the way home? You could watch the news in all its goriness and have a sensible conversation without interruption. As a mum, those glory days are behind me, for now. It is hard to find a job that fits in with the busy family lifestyle. Nearly four weeks ago, I had an awesome interview for a great job. Did I get it? Who knows? I’m still waiting to find out.

It’s funny when your job journey can be read through your friends’ reactions. A few of mine have been following my job journey with great excitement. At first they were positive about my chances. Their eyes were aglow, when I declared, “I have an interview!”. As the weeks ticked by, the sparkle in their eyes dimmed and work conversation was cut to a brief whisper, “So have you heard?”. Tired of all this uncertainty, I was determined to find out what was happening. So, I sent the ‘man’ a short email, saying something like, “just wondering how the job hunt is progressing”. He answered three days later saying that he would be making the big decision this week.

So, the phone has gone back on to the ‘deafening’ setting; it has been my constant companion. It is now the end of THE week and still no word (though I still have three hours to go). While I’m not putting all my eggs in the one basket, it would be nice to get an answer. However, I have put out the word to some more contacts and have received positive feedback and they have me in mind for future projects. Bubble, bubble, bubble. It is an exciting time. Although, I never want to get too carried away and forget that my main mission in life is to bring up happy, confident and whole kids! Which is a Master’s degree in itself.

I have been a person who has never been comfortable with the idea that you can ‘have it all’. I think I was too afraid to have that ideal in my head, just in case it wasn’t really achievable. But, deep down, it is something I really want. I want to work as a freelance writer from home. I want to pick up my kids from school and have afternoon tea and chat and soothe and teach. I want to volunteer at school and know who their friends are. I want to write and learn and grow my skills. I don’t know if this job is IT. But I’m going to “climb every mountain” as Maria sang and dare to enjoy the lows as well as the highs. So tune in next time, I may have news!

Emma Watson

Tagged as: job hunting tips, mums returning to work