Sometimes Life Is A Bowl Full of Cherries
I’m a firm believer in the saying “everything happens for a reason” and I have more or less adopted this as a pseudo life motto. Obviously, it’s easy to make a case for all the good things that happen, but when the bad things pop up, it’s a bit more difficult to see the light at the end of the tunnel. However, I’d like to share with you how the last few weeks of my life have been a true testament to this statement.
A few weeks ago, I was informed that, due to restructuring of my current company, my position was being eliminated. I had three weeks until my last day and then I’d have two weeks severance and I’d need to figure out what I was going to do with myself. Now, as someone who has always been a hard-worker and prides themselves on the reputation they’ve built, this was quite a blow and one that I did not see coming. However, everyone I spoke to kept reminding me that the outcomes of these situations are always significantly better than the original. It’s not that I didn’t believe everyone, I just needed time to throw a small pity party, collect my thoughts and then figure out how to make this best I could.
That day, I came home, I ate a lot of dairy (I’m lactose intolerant), I put on a wife beater tank top and sat outside to think. I was trying to think of all of my options: graduate school and/or finding a new job pretty much surfaced as the two main paths. Now, I was still awaiting to hear if I was even accepted to graduate school, so that was still up in the air. As for a job, I had already decided that I didn’t want to take a position I would hate and want to leave in a year. I wanted whatever move I made to be something that mattered. With that decided, I sauntered back into my apartment and figured I’d shoot for the moon. So I pulled up Second City’s website and looked at their open positions. Sure enough, the position of Online Marketing Manager was posted. Not only did I feel I was perfectly qualified for this role, but this would be my dream job – doing digital marketing for Chicago comedy. This seemed too good to be true, so intimidated by the potential outcome, I waited a few days and then finally applied.
Now you can’t “get the ball rolling,” unless you give it a little push. Sometimes it takes a little nudge from a number of people to succeed in that push. After informing many people in the community of my intentions and this open position, this ball started rolling and rolling fast. In less than 24 hours I was contacted and brought in for an interview. A week later I was asked back for a second interview. Four days later I was offered this position. The following day I received my acceptance letter to graduate school. Coincidentally, this was also my last day with my previous company. So what could have been a melancholy good-bye happy hour turned into a genuinely happy happy hour. Then 24 hours later, I received an email asking me if I’d like to take over the position of Choose Chicago’s comedy beat writer. Insane. Last week was quite possibly the biggest week of my entire life so far.
All of this has also made me realize how important it is to have a strong support system. My friends, family and colleagues have been so incredibly supportive over the last few weeks from sending in letters of recommendation, to taking me out to dinner to holding me together when I felt like everything was falling apart. I owe a huge thank you to dozens of people who lent me their love and support during these last few weeks. So don’t forget to invest in those relationships that matter most. Trust me, it’s worth it.
Now, I don’t share this story to brag or gloat, but instead with the intention of spreading hope and inspiration. If you work really hard and have a vision of what you want, things will work themselves out. Even when your paycheck gets yanked out from underneath you, there’s no need to fret, because everything happens for a reason. Getting laid off was the absolute best thing that could have happened to me a month ago. Now I’ll be working at my dream job, starting to earn my MBA this fall and getting paid to write a comedy blog. All of which may have taken a while to build, but came to fruition in three days. Who would have thought? Keep your chins up folks, it’ll all work itself out in the end.
