The wind is hollowing, the lights are flickering, and the
temperature is dropping fast today – going from 64 degrees to 20 degrees within
48 hours. I think I am ready for some nicer weather! How about heading south?
Hello everyone and welcome to my CSC Brazil team blog! For
those of you who don’t know, CSC stands for Corporate Service Corp and it is
IBM’s corporate social responsibility arm where IBM sends its employees on a 4
week assignment to volunteer our skills, knowledge, and capabilities to
emerging markets. With this blog I hope
to share my experiences as I embark on this once in a lifetime journey!
It’s T-minus 1 day until I head out for Recife, Brazil – the
site for my CSC assignment. I am excited, anxious, stressed to my limits, and
even sad all at the same time. If it weren’t for my long to-do list to still
check off before tomorrow, my constant changing emotions are enough to tire me
out! I am excited to start this amazing journey; I am anxious to know what
awaits me in Recife; I am stressed about my final to-do’s for home and work;
but I am also feeling sad knowing that I will be away from my husband, Dave, and
2 sons – Nathaniel (5) and Jackson (3) for 4 weeks. 4 weeks! It sounds like a
really, really long time, but I am sure it will go by fast (I just have to keep
repeating that to myself over and over again J
). What can I say - I am missing my boys today already! And yes, I am even getting
teary eyed already, but you can’t blame me, I cry at the drop of a hat for
happy and sad occasions.
My to-do list was very intimidating a few weeks ago, but with
the help and support of my amazing friends, family, and co-workers I am
definitely leaving home and work in very capable hands. I actually thought I
would be a much more of a nut case by this point, but lots of planning and
organizing have definitely paid off. My husband has all the kids’ schedules and
activities down (even set reminders for him to get green cupcakes for the kids’
St. Patrick day party); all the grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins are
set to contribute with picks ups, drop offs and weekend activities. Now, will
the kids have matching clothes when they go to school? Maybe not, but I am not
picky. The more likely scenario is that they will end up wearing Redskins or
Terp gear 24/7 while I am gone.
As I sit here, writing this blog, it just boggles my mind
that I am actually doing this. Before kids, I would have said “Of course I am
doing this!” After kids, not so much for the obvious reasons of 1) the emotional
factor of leaving your kids behind for so long and 2) just the logistics of
what it means to leave yours kids behind for so long. So I sit here on the eve
of my departure thanks to my amazing husband whose first words when I told him
I wanted to do this was “Of course you are doing this!”, thanks to my best
friend who showed me that it was OK to be a mom and take this amazing
opportunity of a lifetime, and thanks to my whole family for their encouragement
and help while I am away.
I am lucky and blessed to say that I get to have one of my
life long goals come true tomorrow. Very exciting stuff, so stay tuned!
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