5 Months in Colorado

Sometimes I can’t believe I’ve been living in Colorado for 5 months already. Some days it feels like I’ve been here longer than that. I’ve put blogging on the back burner the past two years. However, I really miss it. Writing has always been one of my outlets, and so I’m not making any promises to keep blogging but it feels nice to post again.

A lot has changed over the past 5 months. I moved to a new city and state. I moved to the same town as my fiance. I started a new teaching job. I’ve learned a lot about myself and what I need and what I don’t want in my life.

Living in Colorado Springs

So far I absolutely love living in Colorado Springs. I get a view of the mountains every single day. I get to experience all the seasons living here. I’m 1 hour away from Denver and 2 hours away from incredible ski mountains. I’m only 6 hours away from home, which sounds long but isn’t that bad.

The Boyfriend/Fiance

As most of you know, Brandon recently proposed to me on New Years Eve, and I’m so happy and excited! I’ll have to write about the proposal another time. Anyways, after doing long distance with him over the past 3 years, it was time for me to move up here to be with him.

My fiancée(Love being engaged but hate that word) is in the military, so he was away for almost 2 months out of the 5 I’ve been here. I don’t like when he’s gone, but I also do well on my own and totally have the best time hanging out by myself when he’s not around. It hasn’t been too hard to adjust to living in the same town. The main thing we are getting used to is having to consider each other in whatever plans we make. Before living in the same town, we could do whatever we wanted on evenings and on weekends since we only saw each other when one or the other visited. My boyfriend is a social butterfly and I’m a total hermit, so I think we’re both adjusting to each others needs in that way. Otherwise, moving up here has been totally worth it and evidently sealed the deal that we want to spend the rest of our lives together.

My Job

I teach technology at a middle school here. Honestly, my job is the one thing that has made these past 5 months really, really difficult. I’m super stressed, super emotional, mentally drained every day of the week. Not every day is bad or awful, but my main goal is to simply survive the day without having a mental breakdown. Half of the stress comes with being a first year teacher and having to build my own lessons and so forth, which is part of it. Teaching is freaking hard and I knew that going in, but in my prior experience it’s never been even close to this. I hate complaining, but I’m only being honest and I can’t keep quiet about how deeply my job is impacting my life.

My job has required me to majorly shift my priorities. My two passions, CrossFit and photography, are no longer top priorities. I get to school early in the morning and then after school I have to work to prep for an hour or 2. By the time that’s done my brain has shut down and all there is time left to do is cook dinner, hang out with my boo thang, and get to bed at a decent time. Brandon has been my rock and saving grace during this time. I can count on him to make me laugh and smile or he can give the hug and comfort I need at the end of a long day. He’s been very gracious to me on days where I might be snappy or rude or will cry at the slightest bit of sarcasm. I couldn’t have made it these 5 months without him. My family has also been very supportive, especially my Mom who is also a teacher and understands the stress of this job.

Prior to moving here I was in the best shape of my entire life and was really performing well in the CrossFit gym. I’ve had to say goodbye to a CrossFit membership. I’m lucky if I make it to my apartment gym 2-3 times a week. There have been weeks/days that went by that I didn’t work out at all. Thankfully, with my job I’m up moving all day and my experience with counting macros has helped me to not completely throw my nutrition out of the window. Before this job, I had a hard time understanding how people couldn’t find time to workout because I had always been able to make time. But now I understand that there are seasons when sleep, work, and relationships have to take priority. If I keep rolling on this job topic, I’d be writing for another hour, so I’m going to stop where I am.

Anyways, I love living in Colorado Springs. I love living in the same town as my man. I’m not loving my job. As I tell my mom often, I’m surviving, not thriving. Here’s to hoping these last 5 months of school fly by and that I survive without a mental breakdown. If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading! In the future I’ll share our engagement/proposal story!