My second daughter being due in June of 2015 prevented me from attending our last reunion. While that was a bit of a disappointment to me, she’s worth it! She needed ear tubes when she was 20 months old, and is unprecedently tall, but otherwise a normal happy child. Both girls are doing well, I love them to pieces! My brother and sister-in-law had a baby girl in 2016, exactly 2 weeks shy of my daughter’s 1st birthday. She’s wonderful and loved too!
On the job side of things, I grew into the position of Team Lead. It was interesting and rewarding, and best of all I still had time to write code. I also was accepted by NASA / JPL as a volunteer Solar System Ambassador! Which means I get to say I work for NASA part time!! I LOVE it so much. It’s like a dream job! Except for the whole not getting paid part, lol.
The biggest trip of the last 5 years would be visiting NASA in Florida and taking the kids to Disney World. We’ve also had many family trips to MA to see my brother’s family, camping Up North in MI with my Dad’s side of the family, and one vacation to D.C. and SC so my kids could meet my best friend’s kids. If all goes well, there’s also an extended family trip planned to Hawaii this Winter!
The worst of the last 5 years was dealing with my Mom’s progressive dementia (not Alzheimer’s), which finally caused her death in Oct. of 2018. Then 12 days later my 13-year-old goddaughter died in her sleep. It’s been a really rough recovery for me, over a year later and I’m still not there. Thank God I have my girls.
I’ve always felt I haven’t been using my Harvard degree like I should be. I definitely used the things I was taught at Harvard, the most important of which was how to learn. But I felt like I was given this amazing opportunity, took it, but haven’t seen it all the way through. That is finally changing. Last year, 2018 that is, I quit my job, sold the house as my income source for the coming year, moved us into a condo, and went back to school full time. I did a Postbac MEDPREP program, which means taking all the medical school prerequisites I never did at Harvard or as an EMT. It was intense! It was worth it. I proved I can be a Mom and go to medical school at the same time – so long as I have my support network around. Every reunion update I put in a hint at a surprise for next time. Well this round it’s even going to be a surprise to me. I plan to be starting medical school next Summer (2020), but as I’m still in the process of interviewing, even I do not yet know at which medical school I will be matriculating!