You might be wondering why I'm posting today as opposed to Sunday but that is because today is this blog's 3rd birthday and I feel that today is the appropriate day to announce some life changes as well as some blog changes.
This is going to be a huge, lengthy explanation blog post so brace yourself for a lot of my brain mush.
Blog's 3rd Birthday
I've been (really, REALLY) slowly working on a new blog on Blogger and as I was transferring over my old blog posts (I mean literally copying and pasting everything manually) I realised I used to enjoy blogging so much more and have totally lost my way with it recently. I used to blog because I enjoyed it and that was it - I wasn't worried about the perfect lighting or the marble background or whether the content was good enough, or current enough.
Lately it's been stressing me out and I haven't been enjoying it; I'm struggling to think of content and trying to find time to take photos and actually write the post and then all the social media promo when the post goes live is just taking a toll on me. I've lost my confidence and motivation with it.
That's why I haven't posted in the last couple of weeks and also why I've decided to take a break from blogging for a little while, just until my life settles down a bit. I have a lot of changes happening at the moment, and while they are all positive changes, it's taking up a lot of my mind. I don't cope with change very well and I have 3 big changes happening all on top of each other - I feel like I'm constantly on the edge of having a panic attack.
Life Change: Driving Lessons
Life Change: Leaving my Old Job and Starting a New Job
Some of you may know that I work in Debenhams and have been very unhappy there for quite a while now - I'm not going to go into all of the details as to why but if you've ever worked in retail you'll probably understand! I was sick of working nearly every weekend and working evenings, bank holidays, Christmas ETC- just everything about it was getting me down.
So much has changed since I started there in September 2014 and I'd just had enough really, to the point where I was going to hand my notice in anyway - new job or not. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with the company and the staff are absolutely wonderful - the best people I have ever met - it was just time for me to move on.
Then out of the blue I received a phone call about a job I had applied for a while back (I'd applied to hundreds of jobs by this point so I couldn't remember which one it was!) saying what the job was, that I was exactly what they were looking for and could I come for an interview the next week? Obviously I said yes as this was the first time I'd actually heard anything back and the job sounded too good to be true.
So I went to the interview on the Tuesday which was just an 'informal chat' with the recruiter (who was the person I spoke to on the phone and was SUPER lovely) and his colleague and they couldn't have been more complimentary or encouraging. Apparently they had met with five other candidates that morning and they were only putting me and one other forward.
I was put through to the next stage to meet with the girl I would be working with (who is going to be my boss) and it would be down to her to make a decision between the candidates. I met with her on the Friday in the morning, just one to one, and she was also super lovely.
It all went a bit pear shaped from there as I was told I would find out that evening but I didn't get a call until Monday from the recruiter to say lots of lovely things about me and that I 'basically had the job' but would get confirmation later that day. Of course that never happened either, and I was basically losing my mind by this point as I had spent all weekend talking myself out of wanting the job and then talking myself back into desperately wanting the job - it was exhausting!
I emailed the recruiter Tuesday morning saying I just needed to know either way and he replied saying he'd chase it up for me. I had my first driving lesson that afternoon and when I got home I received an email from him asking me to call him ASAP with loads of smiley face emojis, of course I rang him and then was told that I'd 'blown everyone out of the water', the girl loved me and that they wanted me for the job! I was over the moon and it was such a relief to finally have an answer and to know that I could hand my notice in and start a new job.
My last day at Debenhams is next Wednesday and it is going to kill me to leave my wonderful Menswear Crew behind *sobs*. I start my new job as a Junior Office Administrator the Wednesday after that. That means no more working weekends, evenings, public holidays etc! The money is so much better and is just generally put me in a much better place.
So that's why I haven't had much time for blogging and why I think it'll do me good to take a break from it, continue to work on my new blog and come back to blogging once I've got settled into a new routine.
Thanks for reading and I'm so sorry if I just bored you rigid with that lengthy blog post!
If you have any questions please leave me a comment, I'd love to hear your thoughts.
I'll still be tweeting and instgramming so make sure to follow me on those (links below)
I think that's all I wanted to cover, in short: Blog turns 3 today, blog hiatus, driving lessons and new job.
A huge thank you to everyone who follows me and supports me, you're all incredible !
Speak to you when I'm back from hiatus
Abi xxx
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