What happened to STR ? <| sep |> 2016 has been up and down for me . For the first half of the year , it was great because I was on maternity leave and getting to hang out with my baby and mom friends all the time . Then the dreaded going back to work , which was actually easier than I thought it would be , only to be laid off a month later . This caused me a huge amount of stress as my city is going to a major economic downtown so I figured it would take me forever to find a job . Luckily I found something almost right away . It ' s less money but way more satisfying in terms of the work I ' m doing and the company culture . As an added bonus I didn ' t really have to use any of my severance so my savings more than tripled overnight . Fingers crossed the rest of the year ends on this high note .