Today
Today marks my six-year anniversary at work.
That is scary, scary, scary.
I was 21 when I started, and, as my co-worker Paul said the other day, "Green as could be, but cute as button!" That's pretty much spot-on: pretty much all I had going was that I was wide-eyed and eager, had written a decent paper for my AIDS education class that I used as a writing sample, and I had a darn good work ethic. How this was sufficient to overcome my being half an hour late for my first interview (I think that my college roommate, who grew up in the same town in which I work, purposely gave me bad directions), during which I had an allergy attack that made me hack uncontrollably, which in turn made my eyes tear and my face sweat as I tried in vain to keep from coughing, I still don't know, but I'm glad it worked out, because it's been a good ride, and I've been incredibly lucky with the opportunities I've been given here.
I've been thinking about where I'd be today if I'd ended up going with my original post-college plan of doing AmeriCorps for a year and then trying to break into publishing. Would I have ended my relationship with my college boyfriend sooner? Would I really have ended up in publishing after working in an underserved community for a year, or would I ultimately have ended up in a place like this anyway, just more circuitously? Would I have done the graduate program I did? Or would I have followed a totally different path, more like Christopher's, really committing myself to hands-on service for a more extended period of time?
I'm a total sucker for those movies like Sliding Doors and, more recently, Happenstance, that explore the path not taken, or how the small decisions or chance events in life can change its course radically. I'm incredibly happy with the road I did take; it's led me to a place that I couldn't have imagined six years ago: I have a wonderful husband whom I adore and who makes me laugh my head off, a great job in which I've been able to grow and learn and that I still like on most days, friends and family who inspire me and support me and listen to me and put up with me, a dog I love more than I knew I could, a house with a yard that the dog is ruining and I don't even care.
So to some extent it seems silly to play the "What if?" game, because I feel like that's a game you're supposed to play when you're unhappy with the way things turned out and you wonder in a wistful sort of way what might have been, if only. I actually feel the opposite; I feel really lucky to be where I am. I've never been one to support the "everything happens for a reason..." theory, and when I hear it I tend to roll my eyes, but it's sort of fun to wonder whether today I'd be a book editor in London or a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras, or in this exact same spot with this exact same life, had I not stumbled upon an ad for a communications position in Princeton, NJ, in the spring of 1999. But I'm glad that I did.
That is scary, scary, scary.
I was 21 when I started, and, as my co-worker Paul said the other day, "Green as could be, but cute as button!" That's pretty much spot-on: pretty much all I had going was that I was wide-eyed and eager, had written a decent paper for my AIDS education class that I used as a writing sample, and I had a darn good work ethic. How this was sufficient to overcome my being half an hour late for my first interview (I think that my college roommate, who grew up in the same town in which I work, purposely gave me bad directions), during which I had an allergy attack that made me hack uncontrollably, which in turn made my eyes tear and my face sweat as I tried in vain to keep from coughing, I still don't know, but I'm glad it worked out, because it's been a good ride, and I've been incredibly lucky with the opportunities I've been given here.
I've been thinking about where I'd be today if I'd ended up going with my original post-college plan of doing AmeriCorps for a year and then trying to break into publishing. Would I have ended my relationship with my college boyfriend sooner? Would I really have ended up in publishing after working in an underserved community for a year, or would I ultimately have ended up in a place like this anyway, just more circuitously? Would I have done the graduate program I did? Or would I have followed a totally different path, more like Christopher's, really committing myself to hands-on service for a more extended period of time?
I'm a total sucker for those movies like Sliding Doors and, more recently, Happenstance, that explore the path not taken, or how the small decisions or chance events in life can change its course radically. I'm incredibly happy with the road I did take; it's led me to a place that I couldn't have imagined six years ago: I have a wonderful husband whom I adore and who makes me laugh my head off, a great job in which I've been able to grow and learn and that I still like on most days, friends and family who inspire me and support me and listen to me and put up with me, a dog I love more than I knew I could, a house with a yard that the dog is ruining and I don't even care.
So to some extent it seems silly to play the "What if?" game, because I feel like that's a game you're supposed to play when you're unhappy with the way things turned out and you wonder in a wistful sort of way what might have been, if only. I actually feel the opposite; I feel really lucky to be where I am. I've never been one to support the "everything happens for a reason..." theory, and when I hear it I tend to roll my eyes, but it's sort of fun to wonder whether today I'd be a book editor in London or a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras, or in this exact same spot with this exact same life, had I not stumbled upon an ad for a communications position in Princeton, NJ, in the spring of 1999. But I'm glad that I did.
1 Comments:
Happy Anniversary!!!!
By
Smelmooo, at 2:03 PM
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