Now is the Time for that Fresh Start & Carefree Wants to Help!

Over the past few days I have been giving a great deal of serious thought to what I want to do with my life. As some may already know, I am pretty young; I’m in my early 20’s, although I have been entirely independent, living on my own, and fending for myself completely since I was 17 years old. I’m an old soul and always have been, so while I’m in my early 20’s, I feel like I’ve been doing this adulthood thing for decades.

While my survival skills are definitely honed when it comes to taking care of myself and making sure there’s a roof over my head and food in my belly, one skill that has not been exercised nearly enough is keeping a conventional, steady, and reliable job. I have been working from home, freelancing as a web designer and developer as well as freelancing articles on a myriad of different topics for pretty much anyone who is willing to give me money in return for my writing. I am not exactly cut out for the work force and never have been. The only three jobs outside of my home that I have kept, I have walked away from due to living with social anxiety and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder; with those two disorders combined, you don’t want to take me to the grocery store because there is a chance I won’t be able to take the amount of people shopping in the store at the time, never mind actually leaving the house every day and going to a job for 8+ hours a day. So that is why I started freelancing from home. However, if any of you out there have tried the freelancing from home thing, you know how difficult it can be to come across steady work and most of the time, it’s difficult to make ends meet. Even when you think you have a steady position working from home, even if you’re with a company, you can wake up one morning and suddenly have that position pulled out from under you without warning. That’s how freelancing goes.

Because I’ve been a freelancer for basically my entire adult life, I’m always planning my next “move,” if you will. And here I am again, planning; but this time, I didn’t have a plan directly up my sleeve to whip out at a moment’s notice. For the past few days I have been feeling like I could merely continue grabbing up any work I can get as a web designer and developer, but I think I need a fresh start. Something new; something exciting that makes me eager to get out of bed and start doing it! I’m sure a lot of other people out there feel the same way, if not right now, then definitely at some point in your life you have or, I promise, you will. The feeling is fine. I feel bored with myself and with my life quite often, I’ve always been someone who wishes they could be a drifter, but instead I just squeak by doing what I have to do instead of what I am passionate about doing.

I need a fresh start and now is about time I get on with it, already!

As if Mom Central saw this turning point in my life coming, they alerted me to Carefree’s Fresh Start Fund; a fund that is giving women a chance to win $10,000, $5,000, and $3,000 to go towards their very own fresh start. The fresh start in your life can be a myriad of different things; from your personal style, health and wellness, relationships, or a career change.

You may think that a career change now, in this economy, is a horrible idea. I mean, who wants to change their career or the focus of their career when money is tight as it is? And there certainly aren’t a lot of companies giving it out to just anyone, so you better hold on to that job for as long as you can, right? Well if you’re an entrepreneur, then you’d be wrong. Entrepreneurs flourish in a bad job market so now is the time to adapt to that “the sky is the limit” mentality, especially if you apply for (and win!) funding from the Carefree Fresh Start Fund.

Carefree isn’t doing this alone, though; they have partnered up with Ariane de Bonvoisin, a change expert and author to provide women with advice on how to make a change in their lives. First 30 Days, who are experts at helping people through change, are also getting in on the excitement with a new program to help women turn their common wishes into a reality.

To apply for funding, all you have to do is visit Carefree Fresh Start and share why you want a fresh start, the plans you have for reaching your goal, and how the funding would help you in your personal endeavor. The top three winners will receive $10,000, $5,000, and $3,000, as well as a personal consultation from Ariane and a three-day/two night trip to New York City to be honored at the Carefree Fresh Start celebration event in partnership with Step Up Women’s Network, the national, nonprofit membership organization dedicated to strengthening community resources for women and girls. All other finalists will receive $1,000 to help begin making their fresh start. The deadline for submissions is July 10, 2009.

So what motivated Carefree to start this amazing fund? While Carefree has always aimed to give women the confidence they need to manage life’s everyday obstacles, they have gone above and beyond with this fund to run in conjunction with the unveiling of their brand new Carefree Ultra Protection pantiliners.

Mom Central sent me a 16 pack of their new pantiliners to try out, which I was pretty excited about. Usually I hate disposable pads. If I use disposables, I opt for tampons because typically, they’re more comfortable for me. Most often, however, I stick to my reusable, cloth pads. They have a fleece overlay on them, so they are incredibly soft and I don’t feel them after a while, which I like. Only one other brand of pad (that will remain nameless) has surprised me when using it due to my apprehension of the feeling of the pad against me. These new pantiliners from Carefree were very comfortable to wear, which I chalked up to them being pantiliners, so of course they’re going to be more comfortable; they’re drastically thinner than your standard pad. Carefree’s Ultra Protection pantiliner, however, is a little thicker than a standard pantiliner because as it says in the name, they are giving you ultra protection… for a pantiliner.

Do not be fooled, these are not pads; even with the words ultra and protection on the cover. I bleed very heavily on the first two days of my period, so I did not attempt to use them during those days and instead, waited until I was bleeding moderately, or in cases of normal women without a menstrual cycle that enjoys reinacting Carrie, I waited until it was a “normal flow.” It held up quite well on my normal/moderate days and left me feeling very comfortable. This should go without saying, but you do need to change it several times throughout the day if you are using it when perhaps you should be using a pad, but if you’re using it on the last day of your period when your uterus can’t make up its mind on whether or not your period has left for the month and just to spite you starts up again as soon as you stop wearing a pad (or maybe that’s just me?) you can be a bit more relaxed with how often you change it; but not too relaxed.

Overall, Carefree’s Ultra Protection pantiliners are great for standard use when you’re nearing the end of your period, but I could not suggest it be used throughout the week. If you’re interested in trying Carefree’s Ultra Protection pantiliners but don’t know if you’re ready to commit, get a free sample here!