Happy Monday, friends. I apologize for missing last week's post, but some things happened that impacted pretty much everything, and I wasn't ready to talk about it. But, in true life fashion, sometimes you have to address things before you're really ready, and although it has been a week, I find myself in that situation now.

Most of you already know that over the summer I accepted a teaching position for seventh grade English Language Arts. When I accepted the position, the plan was for that to be my primary employment with my role at the magazine changing to only encompass the local editorial content, thus becoming a part-time job instead of a full-time one. However, since I made that announcement at the end of last month, things have changed pretty drastically.

At the beginning of this month, I fully resigned from my position with Wiregrass Parents and its parent company, Keep Sharing LLC. It wasn't an easy decision by any means, but after a lot of thought and discussion with my loved ones, it was the best decision for me and my family.

Some things happened over the last four-to-six months that put me in a position I truly could not stay in. So in the end, I kept a promise that I made to myself four years ago when I left the TV station, a promise that I had been breaking for quite awhile. I'm not going to go into specifics about what was going on behind the scenes. I'll just leave it at this: sometimes being passionate about what you are doing isn't enough, especially when you're in a position in which you feel undervalued and unsupported. At the end of the day, when I had thought those two words - I quit - I didn't feel sadness. I felt a great weight lift off my shoulders, a weight I didn't realize had gotten so heavy.

Don't take all of that to mean I did not enjoy the last four years providing this much-needed resource for my community. I did. I put a lot of work into building this, and I am truly proud of the service I've been able to offer local families. I'm even more grateful for those businesses and individuals who've been a part of the journey, especially the moms who have allowed me to share their personal experiences with the Wiregrass. I have learned a lot about motherhood through each of you, and I'm so glad I was able to share your stories for the time that I did.

This past weekend, I performed my last task as publisher of Wiregrass Parents. It's kind of poetic that I ended my tenure with this publication on the same issue that I started, the August back-to-school issue.  I was not given the opportunity to write a final Publisher's Note to say goodbye, so this blog post is serving as a stand-in. As to the future of the magazine, I can't answer anything specifically other than to confirm that there are no plans to cancel its publication at this time, and I hope you'll all continue to support it even though you'll no longer see my name in its pages.

As for me, teaching is taking up my full focus, and no one is more surprised than me at the ease with which I've transitioned into this new role. We're two weeks into the school year, and I'm honestly enjoying every second being able to share my passions with these students. It's not easy by any means, but nothing worth doing ever is. My only hope is that I'm able to make a worthwhile impression on these kids while I've got them. I want to encourage them to aim so much higher than they think they're capable of reaching. I want them to realize over the course of the year that there's rarely only one way to accomplish something. And I hope, more than anything else, that they'll all come to believe that each of them has a story worth sharing and that it's best told using their own words.

One chapter of my life is ending. It didn't last nearly as long as I was expecting it to, but this is certainly not the end of my story. I'm excited about what this new chapter will bring, and I hope you'll all stick with me on this new journey.

Have a wonderful week!