Back Again!

A Little Backstory…

I lived in Michigan four years ago, and we were still on lockdown due to Covid. Thankfully, after not too long of illness, my mother died right before COVID came. During those last few months, I made plans to upend my life and leave Michigan. Well, for many, many reasons.

During COVID, I thought things would be so bad that it would be long before I could move. In early June 2020, I called a real estate broker who not only told me it was the right time to sell my mother’s house, but it sold in three days.

I planned to go to a warmer location and decided on Tennesee for multiple reasons. When the house sold, I had no place lined up. Thankfully, I found a perfect home that fit me and exceeded my criteria. Since the cost of living between up and down here is much different, I could buy the house here with no mortgage since my parents had a bit more money than I thought.

I’m lucky in many ways, and I’m not one to complain about things because I don’t feel I have a valid reason. It took me time, but I found a fantastic job. I thought I’d be secure there for years to come. They hadn’t been laid off, and people much older than me worked there.

In my mind, I settled on being there for a long stretch. I let my guard down, got comfortable, and let other things in life slide to focus on the new job. Flash forward one year: They laid off half the company out of the blue.

Fallout:

It was devasting in many ways and knocked me down more than a few pegs. It was several months before I landed a new job with pay, and it was something I hated. I seldom use that particular word, but there was no job in my life that I could use that word.

The job took me away from home twelve hours a day—which didn’t leave time for many other things. The impact rippled through different areas of my life. There was little time to focus on the podcast and do it right—and my heart wasn’t into it because of everything else going on with life.

The winter months were brutal for me: The worst in many years. To get through it all and the damn job—I slowly started cutting myself off. I wanted to be left alone.

Back to the Basics:

On comic terms, it’s almost a cliché. But, I often felt the early superhero movies failed because they strayed too far from the core and basics of the characters. Part of the reason I think DC’s Dawn initiative is so successful and fun to read is that they took the core characters back to the basics (again).

In the Spring, I applied the same thing to myself. I got rid of so many personal things because they were (or maybe never were) part of me. I canceled my newspapers, streaming services, and even music. Even within me, I started sorting out things because I got lost during those winter months. It was a refocus and getting back to the things that made me—well, me.

Moving Forward:

I apologize for not staying in touch with everyone worried or wondering where I’ve been for months. There was only so much of me to go around. I’m not rushing anything in life and incrementally adding to everything.

Like the podcast, you’ll see me slowly become more active on social media and connect with everyone again. I’m three years into the podcast and friends that go along with it: I’ve invested too much time and resources with it all to abandon everything.

There’s always talk of how social media is a cesspool and so many negatives, but I believe it has much to do with what you engage with or who you engage with. They are fantastic people who have made life fun and given me a chance to do things I never thought possible a few years ago. Thanks to all of you who have stuck by me since I started the podcast!