Hi, my name is Sandy, I am in my mid-30's, and having a complete mid-life career crisis.
But let's back up a little bit. I am also happily married (8 years this year) to my wonderful husband Scott. I am a mom to a beautiful almost-5 year old little girl named Lenzi. We have 2 pets, a yellow lab named Duke and a black and white "tuxedo" cat we recently adopted who's name keeps changing, thanks to Lenzi. I think the most recent name Lenzi decided on was Lila, so we'll go with that.
I have a Bachelor's degree in English Literature, so that pretty much requires me to like to read (which unfortunately I have not done much of lately). I also enjoy listening to live music, hanging out with my sisters Becky and Ginger and my best friend in the world, Tara. I do not get to spend as much time with those awesome people as I'd like to, mostly due to crazy schedules and the fact that Becky lives out of state, and Tara and I live on complete opposite sides of Atlanta. Boo.
Speaking of where I live, I live in a town called Social Circle, GA. Yes, that is the real-life name of it. And it's pretty much exactly like it sounds. Tiny. Backwood. Far, far away from Atlanta (both physically and socially). My husband Scott grew up in a nearby town, and wanted to stay on the east side of Atlanta. I was a young and impressionable 27 year old when we bought our house, so I was easily talked into it, even though it's a good 60 miles from my parents' house in Atlanta. Hindsight being 20/20, I really wish we hadn't bought our house, especially where we did. We have to drive to the next town (or three) over to do most everything: work, grocery shop, have dinner in a restaurant, etc. It is also just so blasted far from Atlanta which is annoying. We also naively bought our house at the end of 2006, right at the height of the real estate bubble, so the chances are really good that if we do decide to sell (and some sucker, er, I mean buyer decides to buy it), we will probably never get what we paid for it. So that's another downer. But you know, live and learn, right?
Ok. So there's my background in a nutshell. Getting back to why I am having a mid-life career crisis at 34 years old.
I graduated from college at 25 (I know, just call me Tommy Boy). I took the "scenic" way through college, which included an academic suspension after my first semester. My lengthy college career also included transferring schools 3 times and changing my major at least 6 times. I was bouncing aimlessly around, until I hit 23 and all my friends from high school were graduating and getting real jobs. It was only then that I buckled down and stayed with English as a major (not really having a clue what I would do with it after graduation), and hammered out my last two years. I was finally done and vowed I would never step foot in another university EVER again. Ha.
Literally the next day after I graduated, I moved in with Scott. I got my first post-college job 2 weeks later. My position was a post-sales client account manager, meaning I was the customer's point of contact related to any issues with their account. I actually liked the job pretty well, but it was strictly entry-level and I knew I couldn't stay there long term. I also had a hellish commute in Atlanta traffic, and I also knew I couldn't do that forever either. Scott and I married after I'd been with the company for almost a year. With the wedding out of the way, I found a similar job much closer to home. I worked there for almost 4 years until I was laid off. They closed our facility down and moved it out of state. This was in 2010 when the economy and job market were in the toilet, so I was really freaking out. I was applying to 60+ jobs a day, jobs that ranged from admin assistants to newspaper reporters. Basically I applied to anything I thought I could do, experience or not. I was that desperate. Lenzi was about 10 months old at the time, and we COULD NOT make it on just Scott's salary. I'd had one interview with one company, but had heard nothing back by my last day, so I was really panicking.
Finally I was offered a job at my current company as an Executive Assistant to the VP of Operations. It's a manufacturing company, and I swear it was a total act of God that I got the position, considering I had zero experience as an EA or in manufacturing. Divine intervention for sure. I landed the job with one week of severance pay remaining, so literally no money was lost. Talk about perfect timing.
So there you have it. The background on me and the path that got me where I am now. Stay tuned for the next post about my job and company!
No comments:
Post a Comment