By today’s end, I will have closed another year, Chapter 39. I know, I am the dinosaur in the room. Nearly extinct, I am often asked and ridiculed about what made me stay put for so many years and not explore and venture outside the comforts of my realm.
Before, I continue writing, this is the FINAL version of two posts I’ve played with throughout the day of June 30, 2023. From its original posting on two different social media timelines, my own and a friend’s, I took my best thoughts I wrote on both and combined the two separate posts. I intertwined both into one post celebrating another work anniversary and the chance of honoring the people I have met and ultimately became a part my journey. Oddly, the final post reads similar to the original two posts, however; feels somewhat different, much like my years at my organization. I like to compare my career to anything but a career, as so few people can relate to sticking around the same organization or company for more than five years, let alone 39 years.
I probably can say it best, by comparing my career to a roller coaster. With each banked turn, you see the camel back in the far distance but quickly coming closer then when you least expect it, the cart enters a barrel roll and finishes off with a turnaround, only to finish exactly where you first started.
Most of my generation prides themselves working at 6 to 8 different companies in their lifetime and perhaps a dozen or so jobs and perhaps moving up the rungs of the career ladder. I have been told I am “old school” and stuck it out for my entire career at essentially the same organization, even after you take in account two mergers and more than several key leadership changes. Gone are the days of retiring with the gifted gold watch and the great sendoff which perhaps two generations ago of workers received. My thoughts are your seat won’t even have a chance to cool before the next person will occupy it and once you leave out the door for the final time, your name and your legacy will only be a distant memory by very few. In a nutshell, I moved from direct services in various programs; with my favorites being aquatics, summer camp and child care to my final years serving more in a leadership capacity. This is where I feel I contributed significant impacts to the organization in grants/contracts, IT, payroll/benefits and training.
All my years were within the same association of one organization, the YMCA. I was blessed and afforded opportunities within which challenged me to grow both professionally and personally. I was provided a diverse, well balanced career with no need to leave my hometown and my close circle of family and friends.
Over the years, I was blessed with many great supervisors and mentors not only within the YMCA but with the many partner agencies I worked along side with. I’d be remiss not to mention the countless colleagues filling my career with learned lessons, shared stories, and life’s varying views. As the years passed, they too have become not only lifelong friends but my extended family. The myriad people I met throughout my journey, much like the beautiful tree pictured in my post, are vibrant and robust in color and size. It was when we all came together, we found we were all held together by a strong trunk and a common bond of deep roots leaving us grounded. With each passing year, the tree kept growing with its branches spreading out in different directions and still remained as one tree, despite how far apart the branches grow apart from the trunk. Who would have thought, the seed planted by someone many years ago, brought us all together many years later. Our branches may have spread out far and wide and others may have swayed, but very few broke by the winds of change. In turn, if you listened attentively you may have heard the voice of that particular someone whisper words of wisdom when they decided to plant that seed.
Reflecting back, I went from high school to a full-time undergraduate student through a graduate program while working full-time. It’s when I helped my Mom, by being my Dad’s co-caretaker for many of his last years, I realized I had voids and gaps in some years. It took a moment, but when I looked back and could barely recall any significant happenings, its then I noticed every year since high school, many of my friends moved out of south Florida, some changed employers or even got married and there a few who gambled by throwing the dice, for that chance of a lifetime. I find one of my favorite sayings “Life gets in the way of living” playing in my mind like an endless track on my iPod. Despite promising to stay in touch, time keeps moving forward as does keeping in touch with each other. Each passing year, the distance, figuratively, grows in length and the promise becomes a distant memory. Some say the only constant in life is change - others argue taxes and death are part of this constant. As the social introvert, it is challenging for me to meet and make friends. I find getting older makes it seems even impossible at best, to find time and the find common ground to meet people, let alone build foundations for lifelong friendships. Everyone is busy scrambling to get their “must do’s” crossed off and make time for their families and careers, merely realizing tomorrow is a repeat of today. We all become like the proverbial hamster in the ball running, but not moving forward or getting anywhere quick.
With time, the very friends who I thought I lost touch with forever; are the very same ones when we reconnect we do so without skipping a beat and pick up on life exactly where we left off. We are the same friends which will always be there for each other. Whether its cheering on each other’s successes, picking each other up when we fail or fall and even provide encouragement when our own motivation is running on its final last fumes of hope.
As I was reviewing my social media timeline feed, I'd be remiss not to thank each and everyone who posted their congratulatory acknowledgements, endless encouragement and their own antecedents of their own life. Each and every post means the world to me, as they validate why I remain with an organization which has been part of my entire life, not just the 39 and counting years of employment.
I anxiously await at the platform for my turn to board the cart. I’ll take the first bucket seat and pull the lap bar down and get ready and hold on to the grab bar as I anticipate this will not be a typical out and back run. My past experiences proved there’s always a few surprises of unknowns awaiting every climb, every drop and every turn, at the very moment when I least expect it.
When one of my favorite mentors left our association, they said this to me as parting words of advice, "When the roller coaster of life gets to be too much too handle, just quietly get off as soon as you can. Find somewhere quiet and calm away from the crowds, allow yourself to regain your balance and courage, but then on your terms when you are ready, you can try it once again." I still have a few straight legs to do before I take my final ride and decide to retire. But until then, I’ll wake up tomorrow morning, ready to conquer and open Chapter 40.
There are two attached photos of me. The first, with a full head of hair, was when I was promoted to my first full time position on July 1, 1989 to become the ASP (After School Programs) Operations Site Director. The second, with noticeably less hair, around the fall of 2019, our President/CEO, Sheryl A Woods recognized me for my 35 years of service. As for the photograph of a beautiful royal poinciana tree, I thank my friend Anita for I hijacked it from her timeline. It gave me the inspiration to write and to plant a seed of optimism for the next generation to endure a lifetime of patience and gratitude, consequently watching their own life grow into something majestic and beautiful, just as my own tree of life did for me.
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