I am The Downshifter. I work hard to make my life easy, and want to make the world a happier place by helping others do the same!

I graduated from Dartmouth College thirty years ago with a degree in English, and have been a tortured, inconsistent, closet writer ever since. I’ve always turned to writing whenever I needed to work through my issues, and now my blog, Downshifter’s Journal, feels like a great place for me to do that.

I recently quit my “secure” federal job at the post office after sixteen years because I was tired of being pushed around and told what to do, and thought it would be nice to make my own schedule for the first time in my life.

But all those years of working 6 days a week helped me to develop what I now consider to be my superpower: simplifying and streamlining everyday tasks and minimizing drudgery in order to maximize my limited free time.

So here I am, unemployed, in the throes of menopause, and battling a severe case of impostor syndrome. As I struggle to figure out what to do for my “second act,” and try to find the humor in it all, I hope to find some sympathetic readers to laugh along with me. Or at me. That’s fine too.