Sometimes Our Decisions Surprise Us....

Occasionally I talk about relocating, especially during the winter and when I think about the places that I lived close to the ocean, they seem to be some of my happiest memories, so of course I dream about a view of the ocean with the sand beneath my toes. However, I really like where we are - I like our community, I love the public Montessori school that my children attend, and I like what we have.

So I was surprised to get contacted by a recruiter for a job and long story short even more surprised when an offer was thrown on the table - some of the responsibilities were new...less instructional design, more project coordinating and face-to-face delivery. The salary/benefits package was outstanding, and it would only require a relocation. The relocation was not ideal, smaller town and as I thought about all the possibilities of what we could finally accomplish with a bigger salary, the thought of relocation kept nagging at me.
A date was set for dinner with the director and a tour of the company and as I looked at real estate and thought I'm going to have to leave my husband and children here until school lets out, I kept having negative thoughts about the relocation. So, I looked more about the town with the hopes that something would pull at my heart strings, making this feeling go away. And then I realized that I would have to pull my children from their Montessori school and I did a 100 mile search for private and public Montessori schools and there were none, my heart sank. So then I thought, is it really that important, this is a job opportunity that I'd be foolish to pass up, but I also felt like it was happening so quickly, I barely had time to adjust to what was taking place.

Discussions with my husband and children were supportive of whatever I decided, but I still struggled and finally I had to inform the company, that I couldn't commit, everything that we were leaving behind seemed like more of a loss than gaining a huge salary increase.

And I was surprised by my decision, I tend to open the door to opportunities, but I feel like this wasn't the right opportunity for me and therefore my heart wasn't in it, which would have been unfair to the company from the beginning. As parents, we are always making sacrifices for our children whether they realize it or not and really it is something they don't need to know, because they are happy and life for them will continue to move forward. I will never know if I made the right decision, but that is the risk I took, however I will say that I am happy with my decision. We all want more money, but you have to ask yourself what will it cost you?

"Quick decisions are unsafe decisions." - Sophocles