I have not written a blog in over 3 months. The reason for that is a combination of different things. I’ve been very busy, which I’ll get into more in the rest of this entry. I also have not felt super inspired. That could be related to how busy I have been, how tired I have been, my mental health… who really knows. The good news is that although I am still busy, I am feeling a little bit inspired, so hopefully, that will mean more blog writing for me. I suppose it better happen since blog writing is one of the main objectives of one of the classes I am taking for my master’s degree.
That’s right, one of the things that have been keeping me busy is taking two classes for my first semester of graduate school. I am currently enrolled in a 100% online program at Framingham State University. When all is said and done, hopefully about two years from now I will have a Master of Education in Nutrition Education and will have the title Megan Hammis, M.Ed., RDN. The two classes that I am taking right now are called Contemporary Nutrition Issues and Technology in Nutrition Education. In Contemporary Nutrition Issues I will be writing weekly papers on various nutrition topics. In Technology in Nutrition Education, I am learning about helpful technology tools that I can use for education, and blog writing is one of the main focus areas. Both of these classes have inspired me to write on this blog more often. For one because I am already writing more anyway, and two because it has reignited the spark in me for sharing my passion for nutrition and running with my followers and readers.
Something else that has kept me busy lately is a recent job change. I believe I started writing this particular blog when I was still working as a long-term care dietitian. At that time, I was considering leaving the field of dietetics altogether. I was not feeling fulfilled at all in that setting. Fortunately, the opportunity to be an outpatient dietitian working in a bariatric surgery program presented itself at the right time and I felt excited about being a dietitian again. Throughout the almost eight years that I worked in the weight management and bariatric surgery field, I thought about advanced education opportunities, like a master’s degree. I was very happy in my job, though, and financially it just did not make sense for me to pursue a graduate program.
Almost two years ago, I was lucky to have a second dietitian join the weight management and bariatric surgery team. I was lucky because I was drowning in my work and my classes were being scheduled five months in advance, and I was lucky because an extremely talented and experienced candidate wanted the position. That person also happened to be a good friend of mine so I knew that she would fit perfectly with our team. It all seemed too good to be true. Unfortunately, it seems like it was.
Around the same time that we acquired a second dietitian for our program, I also found out that I would have a new supervisor. I had no idea what to expect from this change, but I definitely did not expect it to end up the way that it did. Things were working out okay for a little while, then over time things just got worse and worse. I started to feel the way I had felt almost 8 years before when I was thinking about leaving the field of dietetics altogether. This time, though, I thought, “I have been doing this for so long. I have so much time and money invested in this career. And I really am good at it, and I really am passionate about it. Let’s see what I can do to not burn out.” I started by perusing different master’s programs, then took an online class as a pre-requisite, and also to get my feet wet with online schooling since I had never done it before. When things at work just weren’t getting any better, I started looking for different career opportunities.
I didn’t expect things to turn out this way as far as my job was concerned, but I am happy. Don’t get me wrong, leaving the job I had for almost 8 years and the amazing team of people I worked with every day was incredibly difficult. I am glad, though, that I left a good job to go to a good job. I am not settling for something just to get me out and I didn’t have to go to extremes and quit without having a new position lined up. The new position is going to be challenging, that is for sure, but I am excited about it. When I finished my dietetic internship over a decade ago, I really wanted to work with patients with kidney disease/on dialysis. Those types of jobs require you to have a certain amount of clinical experience before you can get hired, and life just didn’t take me in that direction again, until now. I am finally getting to try out the job I thought I really wanted right after school, working as a dialysis dietitian.
I hope that this motivation to post more and stay active on my social media accounts continues, and I hope that you, my readers, will enjoy what I have to share. For now, I’ll just say thanks for sticking around and waiting for me to post again. Hopefully, I won’t make you wait as long for my next update!
RD on the Run 