I know. It’s Friday and I am high five-less. It’s been a lovely week, but my mind is fully focused on moving and a top five reasons I love our new place would be boring. Especially considering the first three would probably be that it has a dishwasher. You. Don’t. Even. Know.
On Monday, I will be starting a new career. Not only is this a new job, but this is really the beginning of a whole new career. This career change is four years in the making. While I realize the average person changes careers five to seven times in their life (the Internet doesn’t lie), I cannot fathom repeating the last four years any more times. It’s been a really challenging few years on a lot of levels, but I can say that I’ve learned a lot. Like a whole lot. But really if I didn’t, there would be big problems. Really big ones. Given what I’ve learned, if I do change careers again (and again), I think I’m much more equipped to recognize when I need change and how to make those changes. I hope.
The last four years have been really fun. I’ve crossed lots of awesome things off my life to-do list, met incredible people, and kind of been able to revert back to non-grown up status (at least in my own mind). Starting a new “real” job signifies the end of this period. When I initially started working full time at 22, I wasn’t ready. I longed to be back in college for a lot reasons.
This time I am ready. So ready. Though I commiserated with a friend about how boring being an adult can be boring yesterday, there are really awesome parts like being able to eat popsicles for breakfast (I had a conversation about this with my seven-year-old neighbor and her mind was BLOWN). I am ready to work in a field that I love, a field for which I have true passion. I’ve very much felt like my life has been on hold for the last few years and the play button has finally been pressed. I do realize it was my choice to pause things, but patience has never been my thing.
More purposeful in my ways than I was at 22, I am approaching this new phase differently and in hopefully is a more effective way than grown up part one. One of these steps should probably be eliminating the phrase “grown up” from my vocabulary. Among the differences will be the knowledge that my experiences have validity and that the learning is never, ever, ever done no matter what certificates are on my wall. I will talk less and listen more. I will take time for reflection. The line between personal and professional is blurry and that’s how I like it.
On the morning of my first day of second grade, I told my mom I had been awake all night in “anxtipation” or anticipation. I have that same feeling again, but on a much bigger scale.
But if we learn to think of it as anticipation, as learning, as growing, if we think of the time we spend waiting for the big things of life as an opportunity instead of a passing of time, what wonderful horizons open out!
Ann Neagle
