Welcome to Finding Homeostasis!

My blog is a place that should provide you with inspiration to try new things and find balance in the everyday… so here we go! Scroll on down!

I am someone who has always had a million and one interests – DIYing, interior designing, gardening, landscaping, traveling, exploring nature, learning about animals galore, educating, science-ing, finding ways to combat society’s ideals around body image and stigmas around mental health…the list goes on and on. My parents have told me I was always the child on the go and on to the next activity – and it is still true today. I decided that a blog would be the perfect way for me to dive into all my interests, without having to settle and focus on a single idea.

So welcome to my blog, my own personal brain dump meant to benefit you, too! I picked the name Finding Homeostasis for two reasons. Homeostasis is a biological term meaning equilibrium or balance (nerd alert). You will soon see that I am a biology nerd and have definitely been in search of balance in my life! Second, Finding HOMEostasis is a play on words. Finding home means finding a safe mental and physical space where you can be who you truly are, and do what makes you feel safe, loved, healthy and balanced. I absolutely hope that Finding Homeostasis can help you work toward more balance and finding your truest self.

Before I get into more detailed blog posts, I want to share a bit about who I am. Originally from the Chicago suburbs, I went through a phenomenal school system that inspired me to become an educator myself. Fast forward and I now reside in Indianapolis, Indiana with my husband, Eric, two basset hounds, Kona and Poppy, and two kittens, Sabal and Cedar! But I don’t want to skip everything that happened leading up to this point and where I am today at 26 years old.

I was pretty ill as a child, I had pneumonia at least 7 times and kidney hydronephrosis surgery at age 8 – let’s just say I spent a heck of a lot of time with doctors and nurses. I have never taken my health or life for granted as a result and these things made me appreciate life intensely – everyone always told me I never stopped smiling throughout my younger years. I do my best to treat everyone I meet with utmost kindness and love because I know that is what got me through my hard times and we never truly know what others are going through. It also means that when I see injustice, I have a hard time not stepping in.

Let’s not get too sad though, I’m completely healthy now! I spent the other portions of my childhood traveling to beautiful state and national parks with my family, visiting Hilton Head Island every summer, playing sports, keeping up with my *18* boy neighbors (Tom-Boy for sure – you bet I was among the best backyard runningbacks out there), organizing a lemonade stand to raise funds for Hurricane Katrina victims, obsessively visiting zoos and museums to see my favorite extant animals – alligators – and extinct creatures – dinosaurs, and pretending to teach the neighborhood kids in a swing-set treehouse.

I went into college a science lover (as previously noted), majoring in biology with the hopes of additionally pursuing an education degree at Clemson University in South Carolina. After spending my summers on Hilton Head, I longed to be a South Carolina beach girl. But… that did not go as planned. Life always has a way of switching things up! Within the first two months at Clemson, I endured a spinal tap (all alone at a hospital in SC) that did not go correctly, leaving me unable to stand for about 3 days due to a spinal fluid imbalance. Still 16 hours away from my family, I had a blood patch to fix the leaking spinal fluid (gross, I know, I don’t recommend googling it), and I ended up with some severe anxiety after it all. I lost 15 pounds and was down to 110 pounds of a person after 2 weeks. To try managing the anxiety/stress, I tried to drop a class I had high school credit for and was essentially yelled at by my academic counselor. Long story short – Clemson gave me a refund and I went home in October, absolutely defeated and telling myself I was a college dropout.

Anyway, no hard feelings toward Clemson – go Tigers! I ended up transferring to Loyola University Chicago and studied anthropology and biology. I made it; I graduated and spent a lot of time working on my anxiety. In those 3.5 years, I found a love for city life, social justice, all things anthropology/biology and travel through my study abroad ecology trips to Belize and Peru. But I still felt a longing in my heart to teach – so I stayed at Loyola an extra year and received my masters in high school biology education and student taught in a Chicago Public School. I realized I have a passion for urban education and knew it was where I wanted to be! During this time in college, I also got out of a toxic, lingering high school relationship that lasted 4 years and met my now husband, Eric.

Eric landed a fantastic aerospace engineering job in Indianapolis and I decided to make the leap and follow. I applied to Indianapolis Public Schools and I ended up with my dream job after 1 application – I feel incredibly fortunate for that. After 1 year teaching at this phenomenal high school, Eric and I got married on the beach in Hilton Head. The next year, just as I was feeling teacher burnout and ready to change my career, I was awarded teacher of the year at my school. It felt cool, but I definitely realized that earning this title cost me my sanity – I was stressed beyond measure, anxious and never stopped working. I knew that if this lifestyle was what it meant to be teacher of the year, I didn’t want it. So I set boundaries for myself and I have been finding a much better balance. However, it is still very much a work in progress!

After my first year of teaching, my animal obsessed self convinced my husband (jk I just brought them home) to adopt a second basset hound and then two stray kittens from our neighborhood. Act now, ask for forgiveness later was my motto – it worked, y’all. Eric is now just as obsessed as I am with all our sweet critters. We also decided to buy a house in downtown Indianapolis and stay awhile; we landed on just the cutest 100+ year old home that had recently been flipped. It’s a dream. And because I wasn’t busy enough already, I decided I’d love to go into school administration/leadership and just completed my masters degree in Urban Principalship. This led me to take a new role at a K-8 school and has been an entirely new journey, but I am looking forward to seeing where it takes me! Now, in the meantime, I have time to start Finding Homeostasis and I am PUMPED.

Welp – here we are, present day. I hope that this first blog post gives you insight into who I am, where I have been and why I am passionate about sharing with you all! Please let me know what you’d like to hear more about along the way. Thanks for following!

With kindness,

Mik