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I can't believe it's been one year to the day that I started Mary's Modern Mishaps. I also can't believe it has been almost a month since my last post...mea culpa! I don't have a very good defense, but it is a very honest one and that is I have been B-U-S-Y! I will save the whole story for the end of this month recap, as my faithful readers most definitely deserve one. Today, I'd prefer to focus on the year that's gone by and the year that's to come.
So, there have been two major changes in my life since I started Mary's Modern Mishaps. The first, chronologically speaking, was getting laid off. The second was getting engaged. You've already heard about the engagement and, obviously, it made me as happy as a clam. You've heard a fair bit about my getting laid off too, as I broke the news with this post. The truth of the matter is, even now, nine months later, I am still so happy to have been laid off. Many people complain about their jobs, wish for (and actually need) better pay, and daydream about quitting. I can honestly tell you that no matter what my predicament in life, I have not had a single moment where I have said or thought, "I wish I were still at _____." or "It wasn't as bad as I thought."
Yes, for once in my life, I was dead-on in the present. There are times when I get sad and miss certain aspects of my workplace. I had some really good friends there at one time. I miss some of the fun times we had together, but I don't blame getting laid off for ruining those relationships in the long run. If anything, getting hired as a manger destroyed them. The majority of the people I considered friends while there have remained excellent friends since then. Although it has been hard to lose some people I considered friends, I have learned to view it as: "Better to find out now than ten years down the road."
There have been many smaller changes starting this blog too. Many of them directly correlated to being laid off. An accurate description of my former job is running head first into a brick wall repeatedly with the hope that eventually the wall will break. You can probably imagine that after about three years of hard work (perhaps foolishly) and not so much as a crack in the metaphoric wall, my thoughts on the future were pretty grim. There were many, many times where I would express my thoughts on the future to Greg and he would reply with, "For Pete's Sake, you're not even 25! It's not like you have one foot in the grave!" I have to say, my perspective of the future has changed dramatically since then.
Going hand in hand with that, I've had a tremendous confidence boost too. Yeah, who says THAT after being laid off? Me, that's who. Again, repeatedly working and repeatedly failing can take a real toll on your self confidence. Personally, I think my view of future took a nose dive when I felt like I couldn't succeed in anything to the point of not wanting to try so I didn't have to feel the failure again. It has been a very slow process to regain that confidence and enthusiasm. In fact, I feel it has only been recently that I have been coming to terms with improvement.
Finally, the Pursuit of Happiness. No, not the Will Smith movie, rather one's own individual pursuit. It's safe to say that everyone wants to be happy. I've been giving a lot of thought to this in the past few months and have come to conclusion that people tend to spend so much time and energy wanting to be happy that they don't pause to ask why they aren't or how they could be. Most importantly, I had the wake-up call many people don't. One day in January, I had an epiphany that I, yes me and me, alone, was responsible for the majority of my unhappiness. Having realized such, I began making the changes I needed to make my dream of happiness a reality.
Looking forward to the future is still a goal for me. I'm hoping to keep moving in the right direction and work on viewing the changes in life as exciting opportunities rather than overwhelming hurdles to cross. I really can't even guess where I'll be a year from now, but I've got my fingers crossed that there will be lots of history to share and adventures to have!
So, there have been two major changes in my life since I started Mary's Modern Mishaps. The first, chronologically speaking, was getting laid off. The second was getting engaged. You've already heard about the engagement and, obviously, it made me as happy as a clam. You've heard a fair bit about my getting laid off too, as I broke the news with this post. The truth of the matter is, even now, nine months later, I am still so happy to have been laid off. Many people complain about their jobs, wish for (and actually need) better pay, and daydream about quitting. I can honestly tell you that no matter what my predicament in life, I have not had a single moment where I have said or thought, "I wish I were still at _____." or "It wasn't as bad as I thought."
Yes, for once in my life, I was dead-on in the present. There are times when I get sad and miss certain aspects of my workplace. I had some really good friends there at one time. I miss some of the fun times we had together, but I don't blame getting laid off for ruining those relationships in the long run. If anything, getting hired as a manger destroyed them. The majority of the people I considered friends while there have remained excellent friends since then. Although it has been hard to lose some people I considered friends, I have learned to view it as: "Better to find out now than ten years down the road."
There have been many smaller changes starting this blog too. Many of them directly correlated to being laid off. An accurate description of my former job is running head first into a brick wall repeatedly with the hope that eventually the wall will break. You can probably imagine that after about three years of hard work (perhaps foolishly) and not so much as a crack in the metaphoric wall, my thoughts on the future were pretty grim. There were many, many times where I would express my thoughts on the future to Greg and he would reply with, "For Pete's Sake, you're not even 25! It's not like you have one foot in the grave!" I have to say, my perspective of the future has changed dramatically since then.
Going hand in hand with that, I've had a tremendous confidence boost too. Yeah, who says THAT after being laid off? Me, that's who. Again, repeatedly working and repeatedly failing can take a real toll on your self confidence. Personally, I think my view of future took a nose dive when I felt like I couldn't succeed in anything to the point of not wanting to try so I didn't have to feel the failure again. It has been a very slow process to regain that confidence and enthusiasm. In fact, I feel it has only been recently that I have been coming to terms with improvement.
Finally, the Pursuit of Happiness. No, not the Will Smith movie, rather one's own individual pursuit. It's safe to say that everyone wants to be happy. I've been giving a lot of thought to this in the past few months and have come to conclusion that people tend to spend so much time and energy wanting to be happy that they don't pause to ask why they aren't or how they could be. Most importantly, I had the wake-up call many people don't. One day in January, I had an epiphany that I, yes me and me, alone, was responsible for the majority of my unhappiness. Having realized such, I began making the changes I needed to make my dream of happiness a reality.
Looking forward to the future is still a goal for me. I'm hoping to keep moving in the right direction and work on viewing the changes in life as exciting opportunities rather than overwhelming hurdles to cross. I really can't even guess where I'll be a year from now, but I've got my fingers crossed that there will be lots of history to share and adventures to have!
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