Going from full-throttle social media marketing strategizing, networking, researching, meeting after meeting, exchanging, posting, writing, correcting, and starting over again to... cooking chili con carne on a Tuesday afternoon (!) is quite the change, to say the least. Not only have I seen and felt my body drastically change over the last 8 months (helloooo Route 66 vein on the left side of my 43-inch belly) but I've had to rethink my objectives, short term and long term, in life, and consolidate what I WANTED to do and what my actual energy levels would LET me do. Needless to say, the last year has been quite incredible.
So now what? I admit, I already suffer from FOMO. I'm afraid that by the time I get back to work next year, social platforms will have changed and so will my perception and use of them. I won't be able to call up relevant consumer reports on my Evernote and know within minutes why Facebook is bugging, I won't be following the latest and greatest minds on digital marketing on Twitter, that #FF will be so yesterday and trends will be beyond me. This year I've already missed out on some of the best 5 à 7s in Montreal with the digital and social media community (hopefully they still follow me...)In the interim, I fear I will become a mommy blogger (I'm already guilty of posting baby bump photos, nursery decor photos, a few TMI posts about pregnancy, and so on, on Facebook). Not that there's anything wrong with Mommy blogging, but let's be honest, the ones I know of are a little too "perky" for me which only gives me the impression, based on what I've been told about mommy-hood, that they've gotta be spiking their coffee with something.
I digress. *grabs cold latté, scratches unkempt hair and wipes smudged mascara from cheek* How will I balance this new home life with the fast-paced social life I once relished?
I don't want to become the one that wears mommy jeans, "Likes" Free Sample Facebook Pages to collect dark circle fighting beauty products, schedules play dates in my iCal and pins recipes on my Pinterest (oh, wait, sh*t, I'm already guilty of that... urgh)!!!
I feel like I must find something creative to keep myself busy. I feel like I owe it to my daughter not to give into the bonbon eating, soap opera watching, cooking, smoking version of a TV Mom. By no means do I want to be a Marissa Mayer, either; I plan to fully invest as much time and attention on my child as possible and enjoy my maternity leave, all 50 weeks of them, with her. Having my Mom around all my childhood meant something to me, so I will do whatever I can to offer the same availability to my baby girl.
I can't claim that I have any idea what the next year will be like. I expect a lack of sleep. I expect Facebook, Twitter and my blog will take on whole new roles. I expect some "sleep-posting" and maybe some crying along with Baby Girl at 3 a.m. every other day.
When it'll be time to go back to work, I'll have changed, the workplace will have changed and so will my industry. Thankfully I love my team at Tuxedo and I will definitely try to stay in the loop with their progress and successes and hopefully won't be too far gone when I jump back into the double-dutch of Digital & Content Strategy.
Until then, I hope to at least entertain myself and Baby Girl... and maybe the handful of readers of my blog posts.
