Hello, gentle readers, and greetings from Georgia, USA. Today marks one year of being back in the United States, and I have to say that this past year has been an incredible year of discovery and changes. Some good, some challenging, and all part of the adventure that was waiting for me when I returned from Spain. However, if you keep reading this post, I have some exciting news to share!

I know I have neglected this blog, and that is largely due to the life I adopted when I returned to the States. Even worse, I have neglected many of my friends as I have tried to strike a balance between traveling all week long for most weeks and being at home for only a few precious hours on the weekends. To further emphasize my point, here is a summary of the amount of travel I have had so far this year and in this job in total:

2016-09-20-travel-so-far

Got that? If you assume that there are about 20 workdays per month, I have been on the road 8.3 months out of the last 12, and even with the occasional day at home and vacation, you can tell that my time at home has been severely limited. Probably the most misleading statistic is the number of trips, because there are often multiple segments in a single trip. It was not unusual to have five nights in five different hotels, often in five different cities. My schedule was to give a presentation in the morning, go the airport, fly to the next city, give a presentation in the morning, fly to the next city… and eventually end up back at home.

To be honest, I have missed the time with family and friends dreadfully. Considering that it has been almost three years since I left for Spain to start a new life abroad, it stings even worse when I don’t have the luxury of social connections when I returned back to the US because I am traveling all the time. I am very happy for the time I have been able to spend with friends, but I know I need more time to build connections with those I love. That’s why I am extremely excited about some new changes in my job that are quickly working their ways into my schedule!

I recently accepted a temporary (“on special assignment”) role to support the international components of our business. While this may not seem like a big deal, I am very excited because I will be traveling in more concentrated periods of time. I will go a single place and stay in that one place for more than one night, instead of leapfrogging from one hotel in one city to another. Additionally, I will be working more at home in the non-travel cycles, making social time with friends a reality again.

For you, my gentle readers, I will be reconnecting with you through this blog, and hopefully bringing you along with me as I have more adventures in the US and abroad. Stay tuned!