2008 was easily the most challenging and difficult year I’ve had in my life. That’s not to say that there weren’t high points but overall the bad seemed to outweigh the good.
Things that I learned over the course of the year:
- You can do everything perfectly and still lose
- Who you choose to be is infinitely better than trying to be someone else’s definition of right
- Constant and never-ending improvement may not be enough to fix a bad situation
- It’s OK to leave a bad situation
- Leaving doesn’t mean you’ve failed
- Sometimes dreams are best lived in your head
- There is no excuse to do something hurtful
- Family holds you together when everything else falls
- Trust is something earned
- Things you never thought you’d be able to do, you are when its right
- There is no limit to what the universe feels you are capable of handling
- You can’t be friends with your subordinates at work
- Betrayal cuts deep
- Doing what your boss tells you is right, isn’t always right
Each one of these things has a story to tell but I don’t believe telling the story is going to make the outcome any different or the lessons I learned more important.
The year started off on a high note and then crept very slowly down to the depths of low. It oscillated between high and low throughout the year, making the year feel manic depressive.
It was in October that things went truly sideways. I had major surgery (which, believe it or not, was a high point) and returned to work and was told that the position I’d held before was no longer available to me. My entire team had been moved to other teams and I would just have to deal with it. Three weeks after returning to work I was laid off.
The upside of being laid off is that I have the opportunity to find a new place, a happier place. I have some time now to continue recovering from surgery and figure out what I want to do with my life.
I can’t begrudge them for letting me go. I was pretty miserable there and it was in all honesty, a pretty miserable place to work (at least in the past year). But at the same time, it’s difficult not to feel that all my hard work did nothing for me in the end (except how it made ME feel).
I’ve had lessons aplenty and now it’s time to put them into action and continue to learn and grow.
2 comments:
If you were miserable there, moving on is a blessing in disguise, right?
Oh certainly. I was looking to leave anyway but my hand was forced when they laid me off.
It's just hard sometimes to accept that everything you did wasn't enough.
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