By Amy Nielsen

While away on vacation last weekend, in the middle of the craziness when I missed every deadline, the universe plopped an opportunity in my lap that I had to reach for.

They say that with great risk comes great reward and never clip your own wings and such right? So I sent out a resume. Well, not really a resume so much seeing as I haven’t written one of those in over 10 years. Rather, it was the most enthusiastic letter of curriculum vitae that I have ever written.

I have a pretty clear idea of what I want to do with the degree I am currently pursuing. I know that I want to open a practice mentoring people with their current special dietary needs to be able to fit those new needs more seamlessly into their lives. That plan is still on the table.

But, for now, I might get the chance to follow a lifelong dream doing something totally different yet oddly related. I met a mentor who could open up a world I have wanted to follow again for decades.

Therein lies the rub. Do I play it safe and just stick to what I am planning and plug forward to finish this certification and then follow on to a private practice, or, do I find a way to work the old plan in and around the new plan. Of course I have to hear back from the mentor first. But, let’s play with planning the new future for a while. If I do hear back favorably, there is a good chance I will have to move very quickly to jump on the opportunity.

I kind of feel a bit like a juggler on a ball with flaming knives. Trying to keep school, homework and home life together is already a bit crazy. To add in the changes that will need to happen for the new plan to not break us as a family is tough but not insurmountable. As a military family, we are semper gumby and can roll with the waves just fine. We just need to have a little bit of time to be able to put our support networks on notice.

I figure it is going to take the next week or two to shake the biggest bits of this out and get a clearer picture of whether I am going to stick with the original plan of mentoring or the new. A lot depends on another person right now and I cannot manage his timing. All I can do is wait and gather my ducks. Or, at least make sure my ducks are headed for the same pond.

Making phone calls, sending emails, and all of the what if’s might drive me crazy. But, I know that in order to follow this dream I have to make sure that everything else is totally, 100 percent as situated as our dear friend Murphy will allow. Which means planning for a deployment-like time period. Right.  Deployment., I, no, we’ve got this.