{"id":201,"date":"2021-07-28T17:15:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-29T01:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.misschatter.com\/vancamp\/?p=201"},"modified":"2026-08-29T15:56:25","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T23:56:25","slug":"transition-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.misschatter.com\/vancamp\/transition-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Scary Transition Time"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I was going through a profoundly transformative period at the time\u2014one of those defining moments you only fully understand years later when looking back. Striking the right balance here isn’t easy: I want to be honest about the deep physical and mental turmoil I experienced without oversharing the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There have been two truly devastating periods in my life, and this was emotionally the second.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first happened when I was 25. Seven months pregnant with my first child, his father died tragically. In an instant, the entire architecture of my future vanished. We had been in the process of buying a home, and I spent my days planning the nursery and picturing our life together. When he died, that future shattered overnight. I was suddenly scrambling to find a place to live, having already given notice on my apartment. With a baby on the way, I poured all my energy into impending motherhood\u2014perhaps at the expense of processing my own grief\u2014and pushed forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I grew up believing that personal value was tied directly to career success. I considered myself an okay parent, an okay partner, an okay daughter, sibling and friend\u2014but professionally, I truly excelled. My sense of self-worth was shaped by that lens. It was never about status or salary; it was about genuine pride in doing exceptional work, leading with integrity, and making a positive impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, a protracted, difficult situation unfolded at work that kept escalating. For the first time, my integrity felt challenged, which shook my foundational belief in myself. I tried coaching myself through it, believing it was temporary and that resilience would carry me across the finish line. But each new twist felt destabilizing, taking me into unfamiliar territory without a clear roadmap or peer support to lean on. The certainty I had built my life around began to fracture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eventually, the stress exacted a severe physical toll. I completely lost my appetite\u2014forcing down bites simply because a body needs fuel\u2014and the weight dropped rapidly over several months. Just when I thought the storm was passing, another wave hit. My body and mind hit a wall. To protect my health, I realized I could no longer stay in a role and environment I had cared about so deeply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My doctor placed me on medical leave for acute stress and physical exhaustion. In over three decades of working, I had never taken a medical leave\u2014even my maternity leaves had been minimal\u2014and stepping away triggered an intense wave of guilt. When the prescribed medications left me feeling foggy and disconnected, I knew I needed a different path to heal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I told my doctor that I had bought a camper van and needed space, movement, and perspective. The open road offered a chance to step outside the pressure cooker, reset my nervous system, and reclaim my health. With my doctor\u2019s support to safely taper off the medication, I packed up and set out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So off we went on our maiden voyage. First stop – South Lake Tahoe, NV<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was going through a profoundly transformative period at the time\u2014one of those defining moments you only fully understand years later when looking back. Striking the right balance here isn’t easy: I want to be honest about the deep physical and mental turmoil I experienced without oversharing the details. There have been two truly devastating […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":203,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"brand":[],"class_list":["post-201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-van-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.misschatter.com\/vancamp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.misschatter.com\/vancamp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.misschatter.com\/vancamp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.misschatter.com\/vancamp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.misschatter.com\/vancamp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.misschatter.com\/vancamp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1472,"href":"https:\/\/www.misschatter.com\/vancamp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201\/revisions\/1472"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.misschatter.com\/vancamp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.misschatter.com\/vancamp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.misschatter.com\/vancamp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.misschatter.com\/vancamp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201"},{"taxonomy":"brand","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.misschatter.com\/vancamp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/brand?post=201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}