Landing On My Feet

My sister has been known to say about me “Don’t worry about her; she always lands on her feet.” Of course, I like to take a little more credit for my path in life and say that I make good decisions. As with most things in life, I’m sure it’s a combination – a little good luck, a little skill, and a “10-8-ious” attitude.

So here I am – back on my feet – you could say “resurrected” after the autopsy (see July posting “Autopsy of an Idealism”). I know its cliché, but it is also true – one door closes in life so a new one can open. It never feels that way when the door is closing – one seldom can see the next door opening, and it takes more faith then I have to believe that it’s there sometimes. But there is always a way out; sometimes the door is opened for you, and sometimes you have to put your head down and charge the darkness until you “see the light” (so to speak). This time, just as I was toughening my skin for the painful charge, a door was opened - - and here I am, standing in the sunshine again.

Reaching my wits end over my previously-ideal job changing in to something less heroic and rightous then I had built it up to be, I decided to stop being miserable. After agonizing over what could have been, or used to be, I decided I was going to leave the company – I had to get out of the downward spiral I was in. I was willing to make decisions that would be less than flattering on my resume (not to mention my bank account). I’d do whatever it took.

Then one day one of the managers from my company called to chat about some projects we had been working on – she caught me at a bad moment – or as it turns out, a good moment. I was a basket case – I was crying and I was swearing and I completely dumped on her. Ended up telling her “FUCK IT – I’m leaving this company no matter what – I don’t care if I have to flip burgers.” Good thing for me, she has broad shoulders, and she already knew I was pretty unhappy so this did not come as a complete shock to her. She asked me to meet with her and we set up an appointment for later that week.

As it turned out she had an opening for a branch manager at an office about 20 minutes from my house. I’ll spare you the whole soul-searching portion of this story and cut to the chase - - In the end I realized that what I really wanted was to be away from the administrative side of business and back in a position where I could serve the customer – direct operations. I was a little leery because I had tried a branch manager position years ago, and wasn’t sure it was a good fit for me. But that was 5 years ago and in the mean time I had learned a lot and grown a lot – both personally and professionally. I felt I was up to the challenge. And from a personal perspective, this was an opportunity to stay with the company that had done right by me for so many years in the past – an opportunity to heal the wounds that I had suffered as well as the ones I had caused. It was the door leading from the dark into the light.

So far, so good – it’s only been a month or so, and I am still transitioning back into the branch environment, but once again, I LOVE my job – I have some great ideas for improving my branch and growing business, and I am very eager to dive in and do it.

So I guess its true what my sister says about me – I always land on my feet –and in this case, have hit the ground running!