I heard about our Human Resources person here at work -- who was told on Monday she'd have a job here until Friday. Upon some just frustration and anger, she wasted no time in packing up her belonging, giraffe's and all, and left the building that very day. Hell, if I was gonna get paid until the end of the week, I'd leave too. I guess there are things in this world that are never certain. Probably most things are not certain. I would say...God's love is certain; our being is certain; I would like to think that our friends are certain. But even then, those kind of things are the variables. Love changes, people change. Honesty, humility, courage, finance, philosophies...those are all variables that have the ability to be manipulated. I would like to try to keep my honesty and humility, love for my wife and friends and family, as certain as I can.
No one ever likes change. Maybe some, but I for one have a very hard time adapting to radical change. It's hard for me to cope with life when everything around me has been switched. When I left college it was the hardest thing I ever had to do...until I left Joplin.
I think about potential upcoming change and wonder if that, too, will be hard. And if it is, will it be harder than leaving Joplin? In some ways, it will, but for different reasons. Here, I would be leaving my family. There, I was leaving a new life and several years of independence I had created for myself...
not to mention all the friends there and a job that I really did like. There is something mystical about Joplin. It is certainly a place I will never forget. I had fun, I had friends, I had a new life after college. There's just something about it.I guess doing things we don't necessarily want to do is mandatory sometimes. Coming to work when we just really would rather stay in bed... moving on with a life that you were content with for the sake of being satisfied in other ways (professionally in my case)...leaving a job of 10 years with all of your giraffe's in only a couple of boxes when a company says, "We just don't need you anymore."
It's sad, but hopefully doing these things we don't want to do makes us stronger, thickens our skins, and forces us to get up off the ground, dust ourselves off, and look forward to the idea of something better at the next stop along the long road.
2 comments:
I always kind of resented the phrase "character building"... which goes hand-in-hand with the other old chestnut, "whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger."
Of course, that doesn't make things any easier... those little words of wisdom usually come out when life is at its hardest.
Regardless of what we do, everywhere we have been together has built new facets into our character... for good and for bad: learning about independence the fun way (living away from home) and the hard way (paying bills on our own), leaving some friends to make new friends who have become closer than we could have imagined. I'm sure the next step, wherever it takes us, will continue in that pattern of changing our lives, making things harder at points, but also making things more fun and more interesting in a multitude of ways.
I love you!
I know that I also have a VERY difficult time with change....to the point where I sometimes stay in a situation that is not the best whether personally or professionally simply because change has that terrifying "unknown" variable to it.
What I have found is that when it comes to corporations, sometimes you are just an entity, not a person. And that just sucks. But if you find that company that recognizes you as a person then it might be worth a sacrifce or two to have the opportunity to grow with them due to the impact they will have on your life and also the contributions you can make on their bahalf.
At the end of the day, end of the week and the end of our lives we all have to evaluate if we stood for our principles or if we were swayed by our desires, be they monetary, desire for power or recognition orientated. Be true to yourself and the values you have. While others might not agree with your choices the only people whose opinions really matter are yours and Gods.
Keep your chin up!
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