Work-Life Balance Part 2: Maureen Oakes
Maureen Oakes dances her cares away.
At 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday, Maureen Oakes clocks off her job as a staff assistant for an orthopaedic surgeon and dashes home to change clothes. By 6:30 p.m., she's learning new steps for the tango, waltz and rumba at the Fred Astaire Dance Studio.
Ballroom dancing is her antidote to the stress of completing and organizing physician transcriptions, insurance forms and other paperwork for patients in a timely manner. "I hate to leave unfinished work on my desk, but sometimes it is hard to get it all done in the eight hours I have at work," she said. "But when I walk into that studio, I can temporarily forget about it. It is as though the rest of the world doesn't exist."
She began taking ballroom dance lessons 16 years ago to improve her spirits and lose weight and has "never looked back," she said.
"I just love to dance," she added. "When I do the waltz, I feel beautiful and any issues I have just drop away."
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