A Rising Tide

As I've mentioned before, I keep my real life job and my writer stuff separate. That said, I had my first really good day at my new job today.

Blue Rodeo has a line from a song that goes, "I want to know where my confidence went. One day it all disappeared," and that sums up what I've felt like for the past year and a half. Only, my confidence didn't just disappear. I was first stripped of it like a Bandaid coming off so quickly it takes some of the skin with it, and then what remained was slowly diluted like what happens to the flavour of a frozen chicken breast cooked for too long in a pot of boiling water.

I kept at it, though. I did not throw in the towel. I wanted to, but I didn't. If not for my family, friends, therapist, and my hardwired stubbornness, I probably would have.

Then, it paid off. I got this new job. The company? Excellent. The people that work there? Fantastic. The learning curve? Steep. They didn't hire me for being good at, or even knowing anything about all, a large portion of my job. They hired me for other reasons, and today I got to put some of those reasons to use.

I didn't just show them that they made the right choice, I showed myself, and that feels pretty damn good. I've missed this feeling, and now I want more. Success is addictive.

I've been fortunate to have an amazing support system both at the office and outside of it, but at the core of this win were the hundreds of hours I spent over the last year and a half putting in the work and simply refusing to give up. Did it come at a cost? Yes. Was it worth it? Yes.

All that to steal a line from Finding Nemo:

"Just keep swimming."

Seriosuly, just keep swimming, friends. You got this. It may not feel like it, but you do.

If you need a boost or a reminder, you know where to find me. I'll be here for you, just like people were there for me. Call it paying it forward, or whatever you like. I just want you to succeed.

A rising tide lifts all ships.

https://www.freepik.com/author/arthurhidden

✌️ ❤️ 🐧

-A