I took some time to be with my grandmother, because that was the best option for the family. While in Florida with her, I started running a lot of races down there, driving her car too. I loved going to Cape Canaveral and bird watching, while down there. I was always by myself in Florida, with my grandma. All traveling and running events were just me always. I drove two hours to my race, ran well, and had to drive all the way back alone. I have always been an independent traveler, and figured out how to travel and run a lot by myself too. I am just a way.

I’m pretty good at solo travel, because I always stick to an agenda or on task. One year, I was supposed to run the Miami Marathon, but missed my flight from NY and did not have time to reschedule that weekend. So, I ended up doing NOLA the next weekend instead. What difference does it make where you are, if you're traveling anyway? Plus I was still mad about not doing NYC the fall before, after altitude training all summer, so I needed an ASAP race event.

Just like traveling for work, airport to hotel to office is swapped with, airport to hotel to marathon. A lot of races down south are flat, fast and at sea level which is nice. If you are organized, traveling for running is just as safe and productive as traveling for work. A lot of work, I can do remotely too, which was great when I needed to go far away from the 'office’ to hang out with gramma. Making gramma cohesive with my life, made me figure out remote work in the software industry, which a lot of family people do. Being brainy and remotely working is a thing, to combine with business trips. Luckily, I never had to pick between being valid in the workplace and being with my gramma, if I had to choose I have no idea who would have been with her all of that time. If it was going to ruin my entire life I worked really hard to have, I would have had to turn gramma down and never talk to my family again, but I made balancing everything happen. It is actually nice to have all that work experience, and then going back to grad school so it compliments the career that I have already started.

Hopefully, I am still a spring chicken, I never planned on gramma being my baby and changing my plans around. Gramma ended up being the married with children by 25 idea in reality, it’s funny. I literally could have gone right into my PhD program, and not broken up with my boyfriend I had a long time, but I chose gramma and now I get to circle back around to the doctorate idea while not throwing away my work life. We were both on a work grind in different places, and it just would not have worked at the time unless I moved in with him instead of my grandmother of course. It seemed like the end of the world to break up with my long term relationship and choose gramma back then, and continuously since, but after working and looking around I don’t really care. Being more mature and in the same general location could make us get back together, or I’ll just start over with someone else, it’s an ambivalent issue in my mind. There are a lot of successful people at work who are still single, so there must be someone in this world I could end up with besides the on and off for ten years individual. I respected that they deserved to have a life wherever they were located for work and such, so instead of long-distance I just sort of called it a break or maybe breaking up. Between them being in the northeast and having business trips in Europe, and me down south it was too much to drag through the mud at the time. Sometimes, flying to major cities from a major city is not a big deal, like Boston to DC has some inexpensive day trip options, $50 options. I’m being funny, but gramma made the most sense at the time in terms of life decisions, and she is why I am so good at traveling alone or wicked self-disciplined. Yeah, in a way I lived with gramma and went out to dinner with her everyday, I did not do that with someone else, which was a sacrifice for me.

No one really has a cookie cutter life, but I am so looking forward to predominantly having school as my job, not taking care of anyone, being away calling the fam on a Saturday, dating again, maybe I need to buy a new laptop. It is ironic that I have no place in healthcare, even if I chose MD over PhD it would have been for research purposes, and my aunt is a retired nurse and I took care of my grandmother day in and day out for everything instead of her. I do have ACLS and CPR and BLS for advanced lifeguarding from Upstate Medical University, but like I am not really in hands-on healthcare, unless I am volunteering in spare time, I can volunteer with EMS if I want to but have not since college. I still have the EMS uniform in my closet, it’s a blast from the past of volunteering in college, my lifeguard uniform is better looking from my athletic college days than my old thick oversized emblemed male shirt for EMS. A lot of times in running or hiking, it comes in handy to have first-aid skills that I have learned with Upstate Medical University. After lifeguarding, I can bring my nieces and nephews open water swimming during the summer when we go to a state park or the St. Lawrence River, those extra medical certifications make that difference between them having their own personal lifeguard or not. Usually, in any serious situation there is always an older large male lifeguard or EMS volunteer with upper body strength and I just sort of am helpful, but I could step up to the plate on a good day and really be in control. I think anyone around children should know first-aid, at least CPR, it is very practical especially watching my nephew with asthma swim, band-aids are also practical to always have. There have been times hiking that I have helped with popped knees going down a mountain or I have helped someone with a heart or breathing difficulty, but luckily it all works out in those situations where I have been in with a more hands-on case. Something I could do for my gramma that would have been expensive to hire out is using those extra certifications to take her blood pressure or oxygen, temperature, read a basic monitor and know if something was significantly wrong or not. I am a math mind and business mind, I am not like my aunt who was a nurse, but nevertheless I suppose I managed caring skills with gramma. I am a much colder person than my aunt and have a very different professional path than she did, it’s not a bad thing just different things I studied and worked towards made me colder than caring like she was for her job everyday. Being with gramma was fine, but it took a lot of adjusting and I have no idea how my aunt was the way I was with a family member for her job, it just would not be natural for me. For instance my aunt can consolingly touch someone's arm at work as a nurse, but if I did that in my office then HR would have a meeting with me and a video so it would not happen again, it is completely different.

Being the granddaughter and enjoying time together is every granddaughter’s goal. Maybe to some of my family I am free labor, but I love my gramma and evidently would do anything for her and have the luxury of being with her. I love when I can see my grandmother for pleasure and she looks healthy, versus being called over when she is sick. Who else wants to sit in a quiet room with me reading, other than gramma? Wherever I go, I need to get one of those emergency weather radios, that always goes off for no reason, like gramma’s. Goodness gracious. You never want a stranger taking care of your family, even for physical therapy appointments, and remote work could be an option for me so I made it happen to the best of my ability. Am I cold or more compassionate for thinking that way? Everything works out eventually. I have flown so much for work, or driven long, I don't care where I go. Either way, I always order pizza delivery from a room. 🍕 ✈ 🏃 🚕

It was fun trying a new city for a race, I loved running all around New Orleans. Such a thrill. Traveling on my own expense and time, calling the family for ten minutes after the run. I feel like I am always happier, being away and talking to the family for ten minutes a week, than being home with them. If I had run Miami, my parents would not have cared I made the trip, but they were surprised I went somewhere new.