As September turned into October the novelty of long distance started to wear off a little for Dan, in spite of all the good food I was taking him to. Can you believe it?! There was more and more friction over how much time I was able to give to Dan. I reminded him of the increased stress I was under and pressure of the contract. The fact that we were still seeing each other two weekends a month wasn’t enough to keep Dan appeased, whereas I thought it was pretty darn good considering the travel was coming out of our own pockets.

The more Dan pouted the less patient I became. Didn’t he grasp that the contract was short term and that there were tons of other long distance relationships that survived on a LOT less? Did he also not comprehend the level of work I was doing in DC when I told him I was stressed? My hair had literally started falling out on this job and I knew something had to change.

Three years on the road close to full time had taken its toll. Not only on my mental and physical state, but my life outside of work as well. Serendipitously my former boss Tim had called not too long ago to try and woo me into joining the company he went to work for two years prior.

At the time Tim first called I was on the fence about leaving, mostly because I enjoyed DC, the perks of traveling and I wasn’t quite ready to give up being or at least feeling so empowered. As much as those would be hard to give up, the things I wanted in life were going to be too hard to get if work continued to be 90% travel.

As my hair gathered around the drain during my morning shower, in quantities that could make a wig, I decided to call Tim back. It wasn’t so much Dan’s discomfort as my own that drove me to act. At lunch that day I hit call and told Tim I was ready for a change and asked what openings were available.

The job in the company’s Risk Management department would be 100% remote based anywhere the company had a presence. This was great because they happened to have an office in Colorado, my home state. With that next steps were taken to start the interview process and I let the idea of going home and settling down sink in.

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