Kelsey Lorimer didn’t expect to hear back so quickly. It took less than two days to receive the news that her career was going to make a drastic change.

Sitting next to fellow teacher Tressa Tekolste in the English office, a wave of emotions rushed over them as Lorimer scanned the email and relayed the information to Tekolste. As they were having a mini-freakout session, Lorimer started to process the fact that she would be the newest counselor at Southeast. This role would be yet another responsibility she would have to balance in her life.

Among the many feelings she experienced the day she found out, Lorimer felt a deep sense of relief as she would be able to stay in the building that she had taught in for the last four years.

“Learning a new job in a completely different building is scary and way too much change at once. If I was going to be a counselor I knew this was going to be the only situation in which I would be comfortable taking that step,” Lorimer said.

This new and challenging experience would begin to be a grieving process for her. Most students would only recognize Lorimer as an English teacher, but this year is different. She has been a part of the Southeast staff for five years now, this fifth year being her first as a counselor.

“Leaving the classroom was actually hard for me,” Lorimer said. “I’ve had really good moments despite the really tedious ones.” She had always thought she would be a teacher for the rest of her life and wasn’t expecting to ever want a career change.

If something bad ever happened, she just accepted it as a part of the job. Lorimer explained that she went into teaching because she cares about students and that was one of the biggest connections that drew her to counseling. In her second year of teaching, Lorimer knew that she wanted a master’s degree but was unsure about what program to go into.

The first school she looked into was the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, but she worried about the time commitment because not many students were teaching and getting their masters at the same time. After exploring other schools and talking to the counselors, she decided on Doane University because they had specific programs in counseling.

“Counseling classes were the best classes I’ve ever taken because it all came naturally to me, and when they didn’t come naturally to me, I liked the productive struggle,” Lorimer said. This feeling pushed Lorimer into applying for the position that opened up last year in the counseling center.

Overcommitted, busy and passionate are three words that describe Lorimer’s personal and professional life. “This has happened multiple times in my life, where I overcommit myself. I did that in high school, I did it in college, I did it for my first few years of teaching, but this is the first time where there’s nothing I’m willing to give up.”

Because Lorimer is apart of so many activities and groups, it can be a little stressful for her to keep everything balanced. “Having relationships that are supportive but accountable I think is really important to balance,” Lorimer said. This is one of the many tips she gives to anyone trying to balance a busy schedule. “I would like to think that I am pretty good at self-regulating,” Lorimer said. “But I have those relationships with my husband and Tekolste where they will tell me when I’m crossing a line or if they see I’m about to implode or explode.”

Another tip she gives is to find time for yourself one evening a week, or a chunk of time, that is not a time to tackle a to-do list, but a time to do whatever you want in that moment. She explained that it could be hanging out with friends, reading a book, or anything else she’s feeling like doing in that moment.

“A lot of the time it’s me reading,” Lorimer said. “And I’m going to fall asleep while reading and that’s okay.” She believes that giving yourself time that is completely controlled for you and something that fills your bucket is super important.

Another useful tip for balancing a hectic schedule is being able to say no. She stresses that it doesn’t need to be a no forever, but just a no for now. “If I say no to them one week I can say yes to them next week and the people that are the best friends understand that.” All of these things bring a calm to the storm and are a great way to relax and recollect.

Along with taking on counseling, Lorimer has recently entered into a position on the LSE Cheer team. This year, she became the cheer adviser and now works alongside her longtime friend and coworker, Ms. Tekolste.

“She is the missing puzzle piece to make this a well-oiled machine,” Tekolste said. She explained that she is really thankful Lorimer took this position because everything that she didn’t enjoy doing in the cheer program are Lorimer’s strengths.

Tekolste has been a very important person in Lorimer’s transition because they have known each other for so long and have grown very close over the past eight years. She explained that it has been a little bit of a grieving process with her leaving the classroom because they got to work so close together. Even so, she is really excited for the impact that Lorimer can have on individual students that teachers don’t always get to see or hear about.

“She has such a heart for people that I know she’s going to love them really well in this position,” Tekolste said.

Lorimer has a lot of different sides to her that not a lot of people know about; one of them is being a part of the popular Dungeons and Dragons podcast called “Sneak Attack.”

She and her husband, Josh, created the podcast in 2015 with three of their close friends. It has picked up a lot of fans since its creation. Lorimer explained that “Dungeons and Dragons” is a tabletop, storytelling game that takes place in a fantasy setting. She was reluctant about joining the podcast at first but once her husband got her to like playing the game, she was all in.

“It’s really easy to listen to someone play it because you can hear them describe things instead of having to see anything happen,” Lorimer said about playing Dungeons and Dragons.

Another rather unknown side to Lorimer is being a writer on a blog she created. About one month ago, she started writing on her blog, “Being ‘The Girl’,” even though she had been writing for about two months. She only started publishing recently because her husband pushed her to. He told her he thought she had good opinions and if she is actually going to write she should share it with people. Lorimer explained that she named her blog “Being ‘The Girl’” because she’s found herself in a lot of situations in her life where she has been the only girl. “I’ve had to navigate feminism from a different perspective,” Lorimer said.

On her podcast, she is the only girl and has encountered some difficulties in that. The first post on her blog delves into that perspective and she does a great job of sharing her opinions and her struggles. “It’s been a nice outlet for me to sort through my thoughts and opinions.”

Lorimer and all of her supporters are very excited and eager to see how well she is going to do in this new position. Already, there has been a huge difference in her attitude about coming to school everyday. Even though it can be a difficult learning curve, Lorimer knows that this is the perfect fit for her and doesn’t doubt one bit that this wasn’t the right decision. Now Lorimer can tack on counselor to the many responsibilities she has; right next to hard worker, friend, wife, blogger, and fictional dragon slayer.