New Journey

I decided in June to take a big step and give up my job as an insurance agent and start beauty school ASAP because I needed more flexibility in my work life.  Well ASAP turned out to be August 19th and now with a month under my belt I know that it is and isn't what I thought it would be.
Let me back up a little though, because folks out there are probably wondering why I would switch from a relatively stable, established career to something that seems less stable.  I had been working for a small office affiliated with a national insurance company since August of 2008 and loved the couple I worked for.  Things clicked along well until April when my dad died.  They told me to take the week between his death and funeral off to handle the arrangements, be with my mom and brother and grieve.  I was so appreciative of their kindness.  Then in May after Mother's Day, I lifted a fern planter that sits outside our building to bring it in for the night and didn't use my knees as it was too unwieldy.  The next day I woke up in tremendous pain and could barely move.  At the time, I didn't remember lifting the planter and didn't know that was what jacked up my back.  I fought with my back off and on the next week.  There were a couple of days I came in late, a couple of days I left to go to the chiropractor and then to the doctor and I a day I had taken more pain medicine than I realized.  Fast forward to June, my daughter started throwing up late on Sunday night and threw up all through the night.  I knew she needed to go to the doctor so sent my boss a text message about 5:30 a.m. Monday morning telling him I had to take daughter #2 to the doctor first thing and would be in right after.  Later that morning he texted me back "We will talk about it when I get back in town".  I could tell from the terseness that he was unhappy with me, but I felt I needed to be the one to take her to the doctor, not my mom.  Once we got to the doctor's office, they were concerned because of how sick she was.  They wanted to rule out appendicitis, etc.  We were in there until 4 p.m. when they decided to admit her for observation because she was dehydrated and we in the hospital until after 5 p.m. the next day.  My boss had a heart to heart talk to me about my reliability as an employee and I had a serious gut check conversation with myself about where my priorities lay.  I realized I needed to find a career that would allow the flexibility I needed to handle these life crises.  I would like to add, though, that I had not missed but one day for being sick and one day off for my birthday in the previous 20 months, so it wasn't like I was a flaky employee in general.