In 2019 I decided to start a blog, CharisFranco.com. I have not made a post on my blog in over two years. So, where have I been?
Throughout the entire pandemic, I worked in a hospital full time, as a nurse’s assistant. As many of us did, I lost all my work, and went into survival mode. I was unsure of when I would ever be able to teach dance or perform again, as the arts were completely cut out at this time. In this uncertainty, I signed up for nursing school. With no dance work in sight, I decided to opt for security and aim for a career that will always exist and provide a reliable salary. Before I knew it, I was taking nursing classes full time while also working in the hospital full time.
Caring for patients throughout a global pandemic was extremely taxing both physically and emotionally. I was responsible for stroke patients, fall patients, and covid patients. In addition to nursing school, I was expected to work twelve hour shifts. I worked rotating shifts which meant I had to work both daylight and overnight shifts, all in the same week. After working over night, I would attend classes and do homework, then be ready to return to work for a daylight shift the next day.
I would dream of living a slowed down life that was the opposite of what I was doing at the time. I would watch YouTube videos constantly of women who lived on farms, or in cottages in the woods. I admired the skills they cultivated such as cooking, baking, sewing, and gardening. I wanted to learn these homemaking skills myself but didn’t have the time. I missed dance terribly and would look through old pictures of performances and wish I could be there again.
Then, my boyfriend of two years proposed, and I was ecstatic. Now there was a wedding to plan! Although this was amazing, it was also intensely difficult to plan a wedding while working full time and going to school full time. However, the wedding really was the light at the end of the tunnel. My now husband and I didn’t want to wait until I was done with school to get married. So, the wedding planning began.
After a long pandemic, I reached my breaking point. I was more burned out than I had ever been. I had a loud intuitive feeling that nursing school was not for me, and neither was working in a hospital. I found out that nursing school would conflict with the wedding. With this scheduling conflict and the realization that I can still utilize my bachelor’s degree in dance, I decided to drop out of nursing school. After the wedding, I quit my hospital job.
It would have been a different life, but it was not my life. It would have been a lucrative path, but it was not my path to take. It was somebody else’s dream for me, and I had drowned out my own voice. I had to find that again and stand up for what I knew is right for me: a peaceful, prosperous life centering around dance and the home.
Suddenly, I am living that slowed down life I dreamed of throughout the pandemic. I’m teaching dance again, spending time with my husband and our fifteen year old dog, and diving into new recipes every night. I’ve realized no one can ever take that away.
I am elated to finally have this blog up again. I will not only use this to post dance related content, but also newer topics I have been diving into, such as mindset, relationships, and style. This is a space for anyone who is navigating through life with an artistic mind. I will use this as a space to post my art, poems, short stories, and any other endeavors I encounter.