Back with more blogging fun (and don’t get spoiled, I won’t always be a writing fiend like this. PI has gone quiet for almost a month and I have to get back to it over there!) – and we’re off to days 16 and 17
Day 16: Something you always think “what if …” about
There’s a lot I could blather on about here involving people I wish I had actually met in real life (as opposed to knowing them only online), ponderings about how I’d still be thin if I just didn’t go back to eating sugar after my gastric bypass (6 months sugar free and I blew it all for a few M&Ms and it was downhill from there) and alternate universes where Lauren is still with us. Woulda, coulda, shoulda …. can’t live there. I can only live in what is real right now.
Day 17 Something you’re proud of
Two things come to mind immediately:
1) Passing the Series 7 Registered Representative exam – so far out of this girl’s realm of skills that it took me three tries to do it (you needed a 70 and I got a 65 and a 69 the first two times) but I persevered and got that licensing. Having that is what allowed me to have a decent career in the financial services industry.
I will never, ever take it again as it’s now 37 times harder than it ever was and my tired brain doesn’t give two shits about interest rates and derivatives (the latter didn’t even exist when I took it). It’s good for two years after you leave a firm and the good thing about going back to ye olde place of employ is that every time I do, it extends that window out a bit. Helpful if I need to go back for some reason.
2) That I even attempted crossfit at all – it was good and scary and hard all rolled into one package. And going there did what I wanted it to do (albeit unconsciously) and stirred up issues that needed to be released. Once that was done, I left it. 
Part of me wants to go back and part of me (the “well, you’re too damn fat for that” part) is scared. But that I went for six months and did things I thought I couldn’t (with the help of my wonderful trainer Shannon) was something I’ll always be glad I did.
I know people who have battled the Series 7 exam. You totally deserve to take a bow!
Your blog and Lauren’s were so good, that even though I read them after she had gone I felt like I knew her… And cried when I read the end and was in mourning for a few weeks for a soul I never met, but in my mind.
So think of that with the woulda, coulda, shoulda… And know you make a difference, and so did she..
Xxooxx
Jennifer, you are so sweet. Your words made me tear up, knowing that someone took the time to read Lauren’s blog. Thank you for that gift. She was but one person but she had such a positive effect on so many lives. Isn’t that a lovely thing to say about someone? <3