This Happened

Yesterday marked the close of a chapter in my life that I can look back on with a myriad of emotions. In May 2007, I started my first 'real' job with benefits and yearly salary. Landing that job was the single best thing that happened in 2007 - it was otherwise a pretty rough year. I was so happy and excited to be a part of the company. I was so grateful to my cousin Erika for submitting the referral that got the ball rolling. I finally felt like positive changes were happening and I could finally climb out of the spiral I felt I was in at that time. It was exactly what I needed to move forward in life.

I rode the city buses to and from work every day for the first year or more. I shopped in my sister-in-law and mother-in-law's closet for business casual clothing to wear (thanks, you two), along with any steals I could find in thrift and discount stores. Even though they were paying me more than I'd ever made up to that point, there just wasn't money in the budget for an on-season wardrobe from Kohls or Macy's. During training, my new teammates threw me a surprise birthday party when I turned 26 - they brought in food and treats and I felt, in all the other tumult going on in my life, like I was a part of something. It was grounding me, because I could see from the other tenured employees that things were going to get better for me.

I threw myself into that job the first year. I wanted to sort of fast-track myself to bigger and better things. I took the elevator to the third floor every day and exited it with a smile and positive attitude, that is the truth. I felt so lucky to be there. When they asked for volunteers to learn a new process or business area, I jumped on board. In May 2008, things were much better than how they had started, and I had been promoted. I continued to volunteer for side projects and prided myself on being a team player. I had friends at work, in a few different circles. I was networking and people started to know who I was.

While I was being a total rock star at work, the US economy was faltering, and in early November 2008, I lost nearly all of my work-friends to the bleak economy. That was a hard day. It was scary. And it got scarier. Everything changed, seemingly overnight.

For the nearly three years that followed, I still wanted to do a good job, and I did a good job. But I started to feel like a different path might be better for me. I decided to go back to school to forge a new path for myself, while working as well. It was difficult to juggle full time work and at least half-time school, as well as taking care of my family, but we did it. And I couldn't have done it at all, if it weren't for my incredibly supportive husband Adam. I went to work, did my job, and would continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Until yesterday.

Because I have already begun forging a different path for myself, this transition isn't shattering. Now I can accomplish my goals just a little faster, which is great. But it is unsettling to know there is a place to which I used to belong, that I don't anymore. That whoever is left just keeps on trucking there, and my absence will go, likely, largely unnoticed. In the end, I was treated very fairly, so I hold no animosity. I am ready for Kansas City life v3.0 to begin.