Well then .... I guess it helps to know something about the person who writes in the journal!
My name is Caroline and I am 45, married (25 years in April ... where has the time gone?!), 3 teenage sons (see the grey hairs?) and live in Melbourne, Australia.
A few years ago I experienced several life changing events. Firstly I went on a 4WD trip with my brother and some others into the Strezlecki Desert in South Australia. The sheer size and emptiness of the place and the beauty of the country overwhelmed me. It is hard to put into words but I felt small and insignificant but hugely empowered all at the same time. I came home with a greater sense of me and a niggling feeling that the time had come to do something further in my life.
Secondly .... the big 4 0 was looming (starting to sound like a mid-life crisis isn't it?!)
Thirdly, and most tragically, a dear friend was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. She died eight months later leaving two young daughters. I realised that life doesn't go on forever and that it is up to us to make the changes in our lives to get what we want. Noone is going to knock on the door and say "Here is your health, your happiness, your career, your security ........."
As a result I started to make some changes in my life. And I'm still going! I was not a healthy person and decided to lose some weight. I did (and then regained ... lost and regained and so on). This year I have made far better choices about my health and am looking at things from a whole new perspective .... not just the weight thing. But you'll have to read the journal for more on that topic.
Perhaps the biggest change at the time was the decision to go to university and get a degree in nursing. This is an area in which I had wanted to work since I was a very young child. For a variety of reasons I chose not to enter nursing when I left school and had regretted it all my adult life. With the support of my family (and there is no way I could have done it without them) I completed my degree at the end of 2000 and have worked on a cancer ward ever since. I love the work and I love the people. I have also come to realise that this was the best time for me to come into nursing. I have life experience and maturity that I could not have offered had I gone straight from school.
I suppose everything does happen for a reason!!
