LIFE HAS A WAY OF WORKING OUT

While setting up for Inspire, the Women to Women Network annual conference, last week, I had a moment. I looked around the ballroom and found myself marveling at my life. How did I get there? If you had asked me 25 years ago where I would be, it would have been behind a desk somewhere. Happy and healthy but not necessarily fulfilled. What luck it was that I overheard my former boss say something that shocked me into action. 

I worked for the same company for almost 20 years. Our office was broken into early in 2020. I was the first one to be notified by the building managers. I was the only one that worked out of the office so it made sense I was the primary contact. Once I arrived that morning, I immediately took stock of what was missing and began cleaning up. Once my boss arrived, she was talking to the property managers asking why she hadn’t been notified first. As the property manager explained, I was the primary contact because I was the one who worked there five days a week. To which my boss said, “She’s just the office manager, she doesn't need to know.” 

After nearly 20 years of helping them build their business, protect their investments, and take care of their tenants (there were hundreds!), as well as sacrificing evenings, weekends, and holidays for property management emergencies, I was JUST the office manager. In hindsight, I don’t think it was meant to be as dismissive as it felt, but it was enough to make me question everything. While I enjoyed my work, it wasn’t what I wanted to do forever - and yet 20 years had passed, and I was still there. In that moment of “she’s JUST the manager,” the rest of my life flashed before my eyes. I could not see myself doing what I was doing a minute longer.

Isn’t it funny how one word can change everything? If given the chance, I honestly think I would thank my former boss. I am sharing time and space with a community of women I had no idea existed. Looking around the ballroom Thursday night, I was reminded that life has a way of working out.