MKE PRESS RELEASE

MKE Press Release – Teri Hartshorn – Hurrying Up to Learn About the Slow Down

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by: Theodore Sheriden

I arrive at her house on a sunny fall afternoon. I’m surprised I made it on time, between my loss of direction driving among the tall corn fields, and the idleness I felt due to the beauty of the drive.

I thought I was meandering, and then suddenly felt the need to hurry up so I wasn’t late. I felt lucky to make it just before our set interview time.

Teri walked out to meet me as I was walking to her door. She had a huge smile on her face and welcomed me to her home. As I take in the view of her house; a 90s tri-level, I mention it seems a little too modern for her surroundings of farm fields, especially with the old 1800s school house down the road.

She looks around at the front of her house, obviously recently renovated. The house is flanked with beautiful flower beds and colorful landscaping. She mentions it’s not her preferred style of home, but loved the 7 ½ acres it came with and surroundings, and after looking at 27 other houses, was positive she could make this work for her.

And make it work for her she has. Once I stepped inside, I was greeted by her “other half” as she likes to call him and her two Chesapeake Bay Retrievers.

As I looked around this “too modern” tri-level I see a freshly remodeled, open floor plan main level that includes the kitchen, dining, and living room. I am amazed at how “new”, but “not new” things looked.

Teri has managed to incorporate the feeling of a country home, with all the conveniences of a modern home, while also paying homage to the land the house sits on.

Her aesthetic is simple and clean, but her design ideas originally made her friends have doubts. Where most people would place a formal buffet to display fine China, Teri has built an entire wall length closed in pantry. It’s only two feet deep, but it’s 12 feet wide, and gives her a place to keep everything she needs in the kitchen.

When she did the remodel, she chose to forgo upper cabinets on the back wall for more windows so she can enjoy more sunlight and look out onto her beautiful back yard, her several acres of woods, and the farm fields beyond. The full wall pantry makes up the space from the sacrificed uppers.

She also chose to install a 36” professional style Blue Star gas range with massive vent hood. It is obviously the best part of this whole remodel for her. She talks about the range in a nostalgic manner, even though it is brand new.

She reminisces about cooking at the firehouse (Teri is a retired firefighter) for a large group of people and says cooking on her new range always brings back good firehouse memories. Blue Star is the residential series of the professional Garland range she cooked on for years while on the job as a professional firefighter.

That brings up the question about her previous career as a firefighter. Teri offers me a drink and suggests we continue the conversation outside.

We walk out to a pastoral scene, dogs in tow. We’re now on a large covered deck, with large wood posts, a wood covered ceiling with a ceiling fan rhythmically turning. I see several acres of woods in the distance and her barn to the left.

The backyard, as she calls it, with the old horse paddock surrounded by a four-plank fence. Classic country. Everything is well constructed, with pink and purple flowers everywhere.

There’s a comfy seating area, a dining area, and a hot tub on the deck. Another seating area and fire pit right off the deck.

And, at the end of the deck, looking over a counter top height seating area with a bunch of different, brightly colored bar stools, is a step up to a pool deck with chaise lounges, and a massive above ground pool of some sort with a separate dock at the other end.

Teri makes light of it, saying it was her excuse for installing the pool. And I’m like, “what excuse?” “Oh! It’s an official dock diving pool, so the dogs can dock dive.” “Dock dive!? Like you see the dogs do on TV?” I ask. Yep, that kind. Her oldest Chesapeake Bay Retriever actually came in fourth in his division a few years ago at the North America Diving Dogs National competition.

She jumped him competitively “a lot” she says, before she moved to the country. Now both dogs can jump and swim to their hearts’ content. She prefers it over competing nowadays and loves having her dock diving dog friends over to enjoy the dock diving pool with.

We take a seat and start talking about the adversities she has had to overcome to get to this point. She talks about being injured on the job and being forced to retire due to that injury.

She talks briefly of the cruel ways she was treated by fire department brass. She tried to brush it off as industry standard when a firefighter is no longer considered useful, but I can tell it still stings a bit.

She mentions the countless treatments; multiple tries at physical therapy, injections, narcotics, and ablations. Her friends didn’t understand why she went to so many doctors and why she was willing to try so many different things.

I could tell that hurt her feelings, but she said she hopes her friends never have to know that place where you’re just grasping at straws hoping for pain relief and a better quality of life.

She spoke of repeated Worker’s Compensation hearings just to get her injuries and treatments approved, and after three years of unsuccessful treatments, having to wait almost another full year for surgery to get approved.

The fire department contested everything, every step of the way.

She says the back surgery was life changing, but it is obvious by the way she shifts in her chair or while standing, she still deals with chronic pain.

We talked about her depression following her back injury and having to leave a career she felt truly connected to. “It’s funny when something happens and you find yourself at such a low point. You find yourself willing to try things you wouldn’t normally consider, like therapy.”

She ended that comment with a snicker. “The fire department actually approved therapy. That’s the only thing they didn’t contest. I ended up with nine years of it! I didn’t care for it at first, but I grew to look forward to it. And I know it made a major difference in my recovery.”

We moved onto her new career as a Seasonal Manager for a major tax preparation company. Teri has a BS in accounting. She started her degree in her 30s, before she was injured.

“I remember thinking I was too old, that it might take me eight years going to school part time while working 24/48.” (24 hours on, 48 hours off is a typical firefighter schedule).

“A good friend put it in perspective for me. He said it might take me eight years, but if I didn’t start, eight years will still go by and I still wouldn’t have a degree. So, why not?” It ended up only taking her five years, and that included taking several semesters off after her back injury.

“I took a heavy load when I could, and tested out of six or seven classes with CLEP testing.” She acted like it was no big deal saying it was mostly general education exams, but finally admitted to also testing out of classes like Microeconomics, Biology, and Intro to Business Law.

I asked her how she went from being a firefighter to taxes. “I had planned on getting my degree, becoming a CPA, working for a local CPA firm until I retired, and then starting my own tax business. That didn’t work out,” she said, half laughing.

“I ended up falling into my own business after being asked by several coworkers to do their taxes. Word of mouth over a couple of years, and I had more clients than I thought I could handle at times. I decided I didn’t need my CPA and got my EA (Enrolled Agent with the IRS) instead.

“Things were moving along with my tax business after my injury, but, honestly, I was getting a little tired of it, especially after moving out here. Then, I got this random call.” Several years ago, Teri got a cold call from a headhunter asking about her interest in a job she never knew existed.

She’s now got quite a few seasons under her belt and has become an accomplished Seasonal Manager for a major tax preparation company. She dissolved her business after her first season and hasn’t looked back.

“I sometimes miss my little business, the attention and time I spent with my clients. You know, other firefighters. But it was the best move for me. Where I am now, professionally, I’m in a good place.”

She loves the flexibility to be “all in” for tax season and then be able to enjoy the rest of the year at her own pace.

And her pace can sometimes cause people to take a second look. “Some of my neighbors think I’m weird. They don’t get the remodeling a perfectly livable house, the covered deck addition, the 50’ pool. They don’t understand why I insisted on raised garden beds.”

Hint – her back injury strikes again. “I can’t be bending over all the time. They don’t understand what drives me. Heck, sometimes I don’t understand what drives me. But I know, after years of depression and self-pity after my back injury, it’s up to me to make my life one that I enjoy and find worth living.

“No one is coming to my rescue. If I can make something I enjoy happen, why not give it a go? If it doesn’t work out, I’ll try something else.”

The irony is, after having so much disdain, for so long, for the fire department that tried to fire her for being unfit for duty (seriously, because of her on-duty back injury), that is the reason she is sitting on her incredible deck today.

“After all the fighting with the fire department to not be fired, for treatments, surgery, my dignity, and all that.” Her attorney was able to negotiate a settlement of her Worker’s Compensation claim, after 11 years.

“The settlement was almost exactly the amount I needed for the down payment for this property. Coincidence? Divine intervention? I’m not sure. But I jumped at buying this place. I was ready for a major change.”

“I’ve been here several years now. My neighbors are used to me now. Now, I just get a random eye roll every now and then, and plenty of help. The community here, especially on this street, is incredible. Everyone helps each other.

“If a storm rolls through, there’ll be all kinds of chainsaws running to clean it up. Need something welded, walk next door. Need to borrow a trailer, walk to the other next door.

“These are the kind of neighbors that don’t rush. A five-minute chat turns into an hour conversation over a beer at a neighbor’s dinner table. And speaking of dinner tables. I get invited to dinner, a lot. Especially when I was still single, and not cooking as much or eating as well. Mostly before the kitchen renovation.”

“I’ve since learned how to garden and how to pressure can food. I’ve learned all kinds of things from my neighbors. And I’m excited to be able to offer a refreshing swim, a good conversation, and cold drink at any time. I finally feel like I belong somewhere again.

“I felt that on the job, and that was a hard feeling to lose after my injury. But I feel it here again. And it is incredible. I feel I have finally made peace with it all.

“And this place, this home I have made my own, this small plot of land, and these neighbors have helped make that happen. Things are slower for me here, simpler, yet much more purposeful.”

That could have been a happy enough ending to a story of perseverance and overcoming obstacles. But, right on cue, her “other half” joins us. “So,” I ask Teri who was single for over 20 years and whose friends and family thought would remain that way, “how did this happen?”

“Well, true story, a coworker introduced me to this MKE thing. It’s the Master Key Experience. I had never heard of it, but I figured, what did I have to lose? It was a 26-week course, for free. Seemed odd to me, but again, I could always drop out if I didn’t like it.”

“It was great, and it changed my life! I was already on the path of making better decisions and taking better care of myself. I was being more present and mindful. And the MKE came in at just the right time.

What first caught my attention was the science behind it. I had to take a Color Code test. You answer the questions based on how you would have reacted as a child. That got me, right there.

I’ve always talked about childhood trauma and how it affects the things people do, their daily habits, and how they react to situations. The Color Code shows the science behind that.”

“Anyway, that is what sealed the deal for me getting started with it. As I was in the class, I learned the importance of good habits, the importance of positive thinking, the law of compensation, the laws of giving and receiving, and so much more.

But the most important thing was having to sit down and think about what I really wanted out of the rest of my life. It seems silly almost. But, in reality, most people never do that. We all get so caught up in the everyday rat race, we don’t take the time or effort to focus on what really matters to us and what it would take to make that happen.”

“The Master Key Experience helped me do that. I took stock of my life, where I was, and thought about what I actually wanted. It took some time. Did I want to travel the country in a camper with my dogs? I’d done it before. Or did I want to open an animal sanctuary?

“I thought of a lot of things. Things you think you’d do if you won the lottery type things. Then I realized what I wanted most, what I needed most. And that was to be able to share this amazing life I have built for myself with someone else.

“Someone kind, someone adventurous, someone with a wicked sense of humor. Someone who has also worked on themselves and understands what is important. I wanted to feel loved. I wanted to love. I wanted to know someone had my back and I wanted to have someone else’s back.”

“I had to move into uncomfortable territory and challenge myself in new ways. If this was going to be all I had hoped for, it was going to take some effort. And it did. It did take effort. But it was so worth it!”

With that, we ended our visit. I looked at my watch. I didn’t realize how much time had passed. She realized my thought, and reminded me of the slowness in the country and how it’s okay to take your time, savor a good conversation.

I told her about almost being late because I got lost in the drive and had to hurry up to make it on time. She simply suggested it would have been fine to take my time, be a few minutes late, take it all in, enjoy the ride.

Meet Teri Hartshorn

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  • Hi Teri,

    Thanks a bunch for sharing your story with us! Your journey is like a rollercoaster with lots of ups and downs. It’s incredible how you turned a house into a cozy home and got back up after tough times as a firefighter. Your strength and persistence inspire me.

    Thanks for letting us peek into your world.

    I am happy you are part of MKE. Keep being amazing!
    Carolyn

  • You have a gift of writing your thoughts very beautifully. Thanks for sharing your journey with the detailed descriptions!

  • Hi Teri, Thank you for sharing the exciting life ahead for you. We are glad you chose the MKE.

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