Flashback

When I was 21, I worked at a warehouse equipment company in Renton. I started as a file clerk and was unwisely promoted to sales coordinator. I say unwisely for two reasons.

One, I was 21 and all I was really interested in was writing poetry, partying and experiencing life. A job was not a career, it was a means to an end.

The other reason is that they promoted me but did not train me, and thus, I didn't do a very good job coordinating sales & installations. I tried, but being the youngest and only female member of a 13 person sales team just wasn't my cup of tea back then. That was probably the only time in my life that I didn't take work seriously.

Eventually I moved to Capitol Hill and quit that job to work at the Chicken Soup Brigade (helping people living with AIDS). They all made fun of me and mocked me for going to work in a soup kitchen (it was actually a thrift store), but that just made me feel better about my decision to get away from the rampant social ignorance in the sales environment.

I was thinking yesterday about how far I've come since then, and how entangled my identity is with my career now. Because of all that "experiencing life", I found what my true passions were and have made a good living since then doing just that. All of those young sharp salesmen would be surprised, I think, at what I've made of myself.

I had a really vivid dream last night that I went back to work there. It wasn't in the same capacity but I was confident and talented. I was walking through the office, seeing the now aging faces of all the salesmen that I had worked with. I was wondering if or when they would recognize me and if they would be impressed with my work. Even though warehouse equipment isn't my thing, I was sure that I could knock it out of the park for them, being the professional that I am.

If I can help it, I'll never have just a means-to-an-end job again. Hopefully I'll have the luxury of meaningful work in this life. But even if I don't, I feel like I know the value of work and my own worth now, where I didn't before. It's all an evolution. I think my subconscious was giving a shout-out to that revelation, and I appreciate that!

Witness

You have a narrative in this world from the moment you are conceived. It is created, developed and nurtured by everyone you come in contact with. It's richness and soul is in every interaction. You cannot control it, elaborate on it or edit it, although we all try to.

At the end of your time in this world, all of your people will bear witness to your having been here, and your effect upon their lives. In sharing these stories with each other, all of your people will come to know you in ways they never imagined, in ways you could never imagine. Your narrative will blossom and you will live on in legend, and in their hearts as long as your people remain.