Mentor Program & Finding Purpose and Passion

 Yesterday I was able to attend a holiday party with the mentorship program I'm involved in at our local high school. The Health & Medical Careers Academy (which Lucas & Rylee are both in) has a mentorship program where each of their high school juniors is matched with a mentor in the community. I am matched up with a sweet girl named Rylee (photo below) and we are part of a "mentor family" with the lady who did our family photos this year and her mentee, Mia. The program itself is something I really support, I think having an adult in your life as a high school student who isn't your teacher or parent is so impactful. I'm really glad to be part of it, and to have something outside of my own immediate family that gives me purpose and I am passionate about. I think having an impact on one teenager at a time is just as important as being a teacher (a previous goal of mine) and interacting with hundreds each school year. For me, that fills my bucket and I'm grateful for my involvement there. 

Another thing that fell by the wayside earlier this year due to the death of my father-in-law in early February followed by the death of my mother-in-law 11 days later, plus my upcoming surgery in April, was volunteering as a CASA - Court Appointed Special Advocate. Earlier this week, I reached back out to my contact at CASA to find out if I can volunteer there again. Putting feelers out and becoming involved in ways that do not negatively impact my family or add stress to our own family unit (as Safe Families did at several points in the past), but still allowing me to search for those ways to be passionate and purposeful in my day-to-day is really important to me. As I continue on my own sobriety journey, I'm excited about sharing my story in a meeting at some point in the future, and becoming more involved with the online sober communities I've joined. I'm nearing 90 days of sobriety, and I am feeling like after many years off track, I'm coming back to who I was meant to be, and that feels so damn good.