User Post: When a Major Life Change Brings Isolation...

I am currently transitioning from working full time to being a full time student while still having to be a full time single mom. I realized that I´m not sleeping very well and finally figured out that I´m feeling a bit anxious about my life change. My last major life change was having my daughter almost 7 years ago and having to do it completely on my own. Since then, I have lived a stable life with a good stable job for the both of us. I have mostly done it out of fear that if I did anything else, I might fail and we would end up on the streets. Choosing to go back to school was an easy yet very difficult decision. It is what I have been wanting to do since I dropped out in 2003 especially after realizing that if I built a career in banking, I would be a very unhappy person. Successful but unhappy. Yet, I have been holding off because I knew that life would have to be different for quite a while.

So the decision is made and school starts a month from today. I won´t be working until I figure things out which means I have to be very careful with my money. I have already started rejecting my friends when they ask me to go out and have cut out all unnecessary expenses. The truth is, that, I´m not quite sure where I belong anymore. It feels as if my life change and isolation have come hand in hand. No matter how great you think your friends are...no one wants to hang out with someone that can´t spend money. If they have the freedom to do what they want, why on earth would they hold back for a poor single mom?

Needless to say, I stay home on Friday and Saturday nights looking forward to watching 20/20 and 48 Hours Mystery. I feel slightly pathetic in doing so and I have a feeling this is only the beginning. I see my social life and friends slowly disappearing which makes me ache a little. Don´t get me wrong, I am super excited to dive into school but there are a lot of things I will have to sacrifice and it´s a little scary. I am hoping that this will only make me stronger!

Have you gone through a major change in your life? How did you deal with it?