On Change, and Curried Tuna Salad

As a lover of all things food, I love love love trying new foods and new recipes.  There aren't enough days in the year (or in my lifetime!) for me to be able to try all of the thousands of recipes that I've bookmarked or saved throughout the years.  New ingredients?  Change of technique?  Sign me up!

But change in other areas of my life?  Sort of tough.  I just recently decided to leave my previous job and company of ten years for another company.  Same industry, but different set of responsibilities and - after ten years of stress and deadlines - a much slower pace.  It's been hard for me to swallow (see what I did there?).  I went from being somewhat of a known fixture at my old company (lots of responsibilities!  She knows it all, she's an expert!) to being the new girl again, and boy is it tough.  New routines, new coworkers, new everything.  No one knows me or my talents yet, and it's been a bit humbling.  I wish I could transport back to my 24 year old self who didn't know any better and who took a job blindly, without ten years of built up opinions, judgments, and comparisons of new environments.  

However, this new job has provided me with, among other things (higher pay and less travel, woohoo!) a clearness of mind that I haven't had in awhile.  It's like I'm waking up after a long, stressful nap - a nap full of bad dreams about deadlines and juggling too many projects.  I'm awake, and now sort of taking a long hard look at my life to figure out what it is that I want to do.  This job is much more of an 8-5 gig, where checking emails after hours is almost unheard of and working on the weekends just doesn't happen.  While it's less of a creative role, it's allowed me to fully engage with my family again and slow down my life in areas that I never thought needed slowing down.  I had become addicted to "being busy", and I didn't understand what it was doing to me.  

So here's to new adventures and learning to slow down.  And being comfortable with not being so busy all of the time.

AND to trying new versions of tuna salad.  I made this recipe last week and my husband is still talking about.  So if you want to break from your routine tuna salad recipe, give it a try.