Reflecting

I was able to successfully create the life I want for myself. I am independent enough to be able to avoid relying on toxic religious people from the social environment in which in while raised. I have seen the light! I moved from a repressive environment into an open and accepting environment. I now have a lot of ally friends, even at work I have allies and LGBTQ+ colleagues. My close friend groups are all Allie’s or if LGBTQ+ identity. This has been about 9 years of slowly progressing.

I am currently back with family temporarily but for good reasons. This is my quickest route to be able to work remotely while studying for a certification. My next job will likely begin near 3 months or less and in 6 months or less I will be making at minimum 25% more income than I am today. Within 3 years I may be able to make 6 figures and May get promoted 2-3x, it will be 2026 by then.

Currently I have been coping by practicing a lot of boundary setting with old family ultra conservative people of my peer age range, a lot of them and myself grew up together.

I have been practicing self care and a lot of breaks and creative outlets. I’m working on being patient. I’m working very hard. I’m tracking my progress where I can see it. EVERY DAY I write down what I did. This is week 11 of the certificate course. It is self paced.

My biggest challenges: pacing myself, keeping my self-talk positive, being disciplined to sleep on time, some spending on snowboard passes and music festivals but this is also keeping me motivated to workout a lot and practice dancing. It also allows me to schedule some local trips within 100 miles distance when I take days off. It is hard to avoid old patterns! I want to engage with some of the old people from my past even though those relationships are unhealthy. To combat this I am chatting with gay friends and ally friends who live where I plan to move back to. I am making plans to see them. I am keeping them posted on my class progress.