15 years. My blog has documented my post career life so far and I hope that it will for many years to come. While it provides some structure to a stage of my life with less external schedule drivers, it also encourages me to try new things and document the discoveries made because I am consciously looking!

This past year took a very different turn than I anticipated. I felt compelled to lead my local Missouri Master Naturalist chapter after the abrupt departure of the president in June and the VP declining to become the president in July. I was already dedicated to hosting a core training class in the fall…so just rolled the leadership job into that. August-October became the most work-like time for me since 2011! In my previous volunteering I had used some of the skills I learned during my career in short bursts and very specific; this time I needed to apply many of leadership skills honed over the last 20 years of my career as a package and the need was sustained over several months. It was invigorating….and exhausting. I am glad I managed to do it. The blog posts for the past few months reflect parts of what I did; there was no time to write more complete documentation. Often, I was so focused on the students that I forgot to take any pictures at all! I will still be president of the chapter until the end of the year – still a leadership role but not as challenging as hosting the core training class in September and October.

Last year I anticipated that plastics was going to become my volunteering focus. That hasn’t happened because I was overwhelmed with the core training beginning last spring….and I hadn’t come up with enough of an action plan on my own; I’ve done what I can do as an individual to reduce my own plastic exposure; collaborating with others to make a difference is harder and I am still learning how to do it!

Previous anniversary posts: 14th anniversary, 13th anniversary, 12th anniversary, 11th anniversary, 10th anniversary, 9th anniversary