Creating a work/life balance is challenging no matter who you are. Most of our team here at Harvest Pursuit are working mamas balancing home life with their babies, spouses, jobs AND finding time for work through it all. As we all know, there are only so many hours in the day! I’m a 26 year old single guy so it may seem crazy that even I struggle finding a balance between work and having a personal/social life haha. But a little background about me…
I moved out of my parents house and started college when I was 17 years old and haven’t even lived in the same state as my parents since then. They helped as much as they could financially, but they were also having to support themselves along with my younger brother and my grandpa. I worked all throughout college in my work study, taught and danced professionally on the side all while working towards my Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance. I was actively dancing and taking classes from 8am-6pm and sometimes as late as 10pm when we were rehearsing for shows.
I continued that crazy lifestyle after college working and dancing in Nashville from 9am-6pm Monday through Friday, taught dance one-two nights a week and worked doubles every Saturday and Sunday serving at a local restaurant for two years. I quit dancing professionally for a multitude of reasons unrelated to this blog.. Maybe we can save that story for another blog 😉 Anyway, once I quit dancing, I started teaching full time (where I met the fabulous HP Founder, Courtney) and immediately started working 6 days a week at the dance studio and because like that viral tik tok sound: “Something about me is, I have never been relaxed ever”, I decided to get a second full-time job as a preschool teacher during the day working from 6:30am-4:00pm and teaching dance from 4:30pm-9:00pm every night.
I continued to work and work and work and work like this for two more years until moving to where I live now in Columbus, Ohio. I worked the same schedule at a preschool during the day and at the studio at night for about one more year here and when we started our production of The Nutcracker, I was even working 7 days a week for 4 months…now I work part time with completely remote and flexible hours at Harvest Pursuit while teaching dance. I’m actually writing this right now from our National Dance Competition in Pigeon Forge, TN. I think the best part about finding a job like this that’s so flexible is being able to prioritize my day with my own needs and wants before tackling my tasks for HP for the day.
I think one challenge to creating that work life balance is finding time for a social life as a young adult. That may seem trivial, but as someone who has lived in 3 different states in my short adult life thus far, it’s quite difficult to make friendships that mean something and rather quickly. Most of my friends have come from work or people I have met through work. Most of the people in my life who I consider to be my closest friends and family all live in other states, so it’s another layer to balancing that side of my personal life… choosing to cultivate new friendships in a new city or holding onto and strengthening long distance friendships.
Overall, I am at a place in my life where I absolutely love my jobs and it does not feel like work. It truly feels like family and my bosses are truly my best friends. I do tend to blur the lines between work and play because I am so passionate about what I do and close to the people I do work with. It can be hard not to take work home with me, but at the end of the day, I really wouldn’t have it any other way. The best takeaway I hope anyone who is still reading this can will receive is to set boundaries, live authentically and create space in your life where you can do the things you’re passionate about and spend time with the people you love the most.
By: Sean Daly