Today is my first day back at work which comes after 3 months of sabbatical. I was initially going to write that it is challenging to really enjoy your sabbatical when you have a young child. But then, I talked to my cousin who is 22 years old and is living at war in Ukraine every day with no heating and about 2 hours of electricity per day. That gave me some perspective on how to feel gratitude!
While I might not have been able to travel as much as I liked or had as much free time as I wanted, I am still very grateful for the time off that I had. I got to spend a lot of time with Sofia and while in the moment, it seemed slow-paced and I was missing a conversation with an adult, I think it is a great privilege to spend days with your growing child and see the world through their eyes. I love my daughter so much and I am so glad that we could bond during these three months.
While day-to-day was on the slower side – there were a lot of changes too: we moved to the Netherlands, although our stuff did not seem to move with us and we are still waiting for it. My grandparents came from Ukraine and were able to meet Sofia and spend several weeks getting to know her. Nicolas and I took a trip to the Austrian Alps and went with Sofia to the beach in Holland.
Although I did not travel as much as I would have liked to, I got to read a lot and this was one of my top priorities for the sabbatical. I was missing reading and I really wanted to dedicate some time to it. I managed to get through 10 books and got to know a wonderful world of music through the biography of Elton John and an exciting world of tennis through Andre Agassi. Although I did not travel as much, I feel like I lived through different universes with the books that I read.
I also wanted to study a bit more: I did manage to take some JavaScript workshops but not as much as initially planned. I still enjoyed it though and I am excited for more in the next few months.
My sabbatical was definitely different from what I expected it to be but it certainly did not lack laughter, family moments, and joy.
Kat's Thoughts 