Wrapping Up Our Year and What the Future Holds

To steal a line from my cousin Sonya’s Christmas letter, “2022 was such a brutal year”, or something like that.
The year started with me preparing to medically retire from the Air Force, sell our house in Las Vegas, and move my family across the country to Florida. Both my official retirement paperwork dropped, and my terminal leave started in January. By the end of January, we had all of our household items picked up. The house was sold, and we were on our way to Florida.
Besides looking for a new home, I also had to start finding a post-military career. I really, really wanted to work at the Department of Veterans Affairs and help other veterans as much as possible in a non-clinical role. I did have an internship lined up with the VA, but my early medical retirement did not permit me to attend it. So, instead, I had a different type of internship lined up, still at the VA. But, since we moved from Las Vegas to Tampa, it fell through too. So far, I was not off to a good start for my post-military career.
I actually ended up having three different jobs by the end of 2022. I landed an interview in February at a local hospital and was hired on the spot. I couldn’t start until the end of March, which gave us plenty of time to find a new house. I was to be part of the new guest services team the hospital was starting. My job was to help direct patients and family members where they needed to go. Basically, I was to give the Chick-fil-a experience at the hospital emergency room. This position was taken on the condition that it could lead to a better-paying one after six months.
Unfortunately, when it was time to make that switch, there were no jobs available to transfer to. So I started looking for a different job. I applied to so many with very little luck. Eventually, a recruiting company reached out to me, and I thought I would enjoy recruiting nurses. So, for two months, I tried, but I despised every minute of it. I made thousands of phone calls, mainly to nurses that had been contacted by hundreds of other recruiters before me. I think I removed more nurses’ numbers from the system than I took that were somewhat interested in a travel job.
The search started again. I was applying to jobs while sitting at my desk calling leads. Once again, I sent out hundreds of resumes and got no replies. But, there was an email from a manager at the hospital I worked before recruiting. But I told them I wasn’t interested, since I had just started the other job. I reached back to my old manager at the hospital and asked if he knew of any departments that were hiring. After sending him my updated resume, I got a call from my new manager about a referral specialist position for a very busy Ear, Nose, Throat, and allergy clinic. If you hadn’t guessed, I took the job. It was a pay cut from what I was making at the terrible recruiting job. But the environment was better, along with the people.
Now, let us get to the good that happened in 2022. Bea and I welcomed our second boy, William (Liam) Miller. He was 6lb 12 oz and 20.4 in. He was born healthy and ready to be introduced to the world. We also found and purchased a new home. It’s a little far from work, but we like it. Jameson turned two and got to celebrate it with his grandparents from Germany. And Liam got to spend a few months with them as well.
The bad of 2022 was that I lost my hero. My dad passed away nine days after Liam was born, but he did get to meet his grandpa. The big reason we moved to Florida was so that I could reconnect with my family after being away for the past 10 years. I will never take for granted the few months we got with him. I lost my grandfather a few months later.
It was a year of up and downs, that’s for sure. So here is to 2023 and what it will bring.