Stacey S Blog Prompt

     In our lifetime we will make many decisions from the simplest to the most complex and we will consider different criteria for each circumstance.   I can name at least two instances in which I relied on certain criterion to make my decisions.  Firstly, I decided to move to Ohio and live with my now husband, Steve.  I had to leave behind my family and friends and go against religious issues that had been instilled in us.  Secondly, I chose to leave a job that I had been at for twelve years.

     When I graduated in 1995 from college, I was dating Steve who is my husband now.  He lived in Ohio and I lived with my parents in Pennsylvania.  We were already engaged but not married yet.  I had to really think about uprooting and moving from everything that I had know for my entire 21 years of life.   Also, I come from a very religious home and I was deciding to move in with him without being married.  I finally said to myself that you love him and you are going to marry him so this does not really seem like a complicated decision.  I had to do this because my family will always be there for me no matter where I am even if it meant moving to Ohio.  I was starting a new life with someone that needed me too.  In order to make it work, I had to make the choice to leave home and spread my wings.   As far as the religious aspect, my mother respected my decision but I know that she was not very happy.  I was raised that you must be married before you live together.  However, I thought to myself that times are changing and we could live together and still respect my families religious beliefs.  My husband worked two jobs and I worked double shifts, so we never saw each other.

     I had to really evaluate my choice to leave my job.  As soon as I moved to Ohio, I got a job as a server.  I moved up the success ladder to Assistant Manager.  Mostly, I would work seven days a week and  twelve hours a day.  Anytime there was a problem, I was the person who got contacted to fix the situations.  I knew that these conditions were all part of my job but I started to question if this was what I really wanted.    I was missing my children’s soccer and baseball games.  My oldest son races go karts and I was having to here about how he did and watch it on video instead of being there in person.  In 2005,  I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia.  I was always in pain had trouble moving my body without discomfort.  I was having problems with some of the changes that my boss had incorporated.   I have always wanted to go back to school and complete my Bachelor’s degree.  All of these things were the criteria that I used to leave my job.  I sacrificed a great paying job to spend more quality time with my family.  I guess the only regret is the length of time it took me to make my decision.  As far as sacrificing the great pay, it was not much of a sacrifice because you can not but any monetary value on family and good health.

 This assignment to write about our “real world” circumstances can be used in writing our Essay .   We were able to use are ability to critique our own situations and make a decision.  This will allow us to be able to use these techniques to write our own essays.  I made certain decisions based on my own criteria but someone else may have read this and might disagree with my choices.   That is what critical thinking is all about, we all make our own assumptions with different views or ways of looking at these different circumstances.