Work Stuff.

My job has sent me to Florida to promote a new book launching this summer. Florida. In February. After one of the snowiest Boston winters on record.

I told them if they really, really needed me to go, I'd make the sacrifice. For I am nothing if not dedicated. Once I was checked into my hotel, made a few phone calls, and dealt with a bit of work emails I took myself out for a quick walk along the beach. What a novelty to walk barefoot on the beach in February, I thought. How lucky am I?! And then I looked down on the sand and realized I was thisclose to stepping on a condom. Uh. Huh. Peaks and valleys, baby. Peaks and valleys.

******

Last week marked my five year anniversary at my company. I came into work on a routine Monday, ready for my 9am conference call with my Ohio based team, only to find bagels stacked nearly a mile high on the filing cabinets near my desk. Through a covert, coordinated effort, my team had ordered breakfast as a surprise, announcing to several of my co-workers in our Boston office that bagels were on the house. They even ordered chive cream cheese, after a co-worker chimed in on the email planning surprise, and explained for a fact that she knew I was a huge fan of that particular flavor.

It was quite a nice way to start 5 years + day 1.

******

When I was in my early twenties, I kept struggling to figure out "what I wanted to do." I had an okay job working in a graduate admissions office at BU, but it was not the spot where I wanted to carve a career. I can vividly recall a car ride with my then boyfriend, somewhere along the MassPike. "What do you want to do, Kel?" he asked, somewhat frustrated. "What. do. you. want. to. do?"

I took a breath. "I want to work in publishing."

******

It sort of amazes me now, when I see some of the people (I am fighting every instinct that wants to call them "kids") that waltz into our offices and get hired for the entry level editorial assistant positions. Granted, some of them have the drive and determination. They're hard workers and it shows almost instantaneously. Then, there are others that...well...they just leave me speechless with their apathetic, rather lousy attitudes. Beyond the general annoyance, I suppose what galls me most about that sort of behavior is the fact that I remember - clear as a bell - how hard I worked to get my foot in the publishing door.

I went back to school, taking evening classes in a graduate certificate program through Emerson College. I took an entry level admin position that I hated solely because I wanted my foot in the right door. I moved to New York and clawed my way into one of - if not the - most prestigious magazine publishing companies in the world. Later, I sat in an office back in Boston, interviewing for the job I would eventually take when I left New York and told my soon to be boss that I was a hard worker, that I wanted her to give me a shot, that I could do this job if she would just give me the opportunity.

And she did.

I stayed in that position up until this past July when I accepted a new gig within the company. I stretched that job as far as I possibly could and I learned a hell of a lot. About the industry, about office politics in general, and about myself. It's no secret that I worried a little bit when I accepted the position I currently hold, but six months in and I'm sure I made a very smart decision for myself. I continue to learn new things daily, I continue to stretch my brain in directions it hasn't gone yet, I can use my autonomy for good. And you know? I dig it.

******

When I left New York, I knew I was leaving behind the epicenter of the magazine world. Do I miss it? Sometimes. I like to think if I'd stayed I would have continued to climb the ladder in that world too and I might be typing a post very similar to this one on some other company laptop, in some other random hotel room. But I know first hand what that magazine culture is like. And I knew coming back to Boston would afford me a smaller pond in which to swim, most likely without the other sharks circling quite so furiously.

The other night I went out for drinks with a co-worker before a concert. She commented on my five years and then asked, "Are you a lifer, Kelli?" I shrugged my shoulders. "I don't know," I said, honestly. Five years sure flew by faster than I would have ever guessed. So who knows?
There are a lot of things beyond publishing that I'm interested in, there are a lot of opportunities if we seek them out, and there are even things that find us rather than the other way 'round. Often, I feel like I'm just getting started in this life. So who knows what the future will hold?

For I have long since figured out that I cannot predict that future, or any future, no matter how hard I try. Things and events I was absolutely sure of happening didn't, while things I never in a million years would have imagined, did. What I have learned - what I continue to learn - is to count my blessings, to take notice and pay attention when I'm happy, and to keep moving forward.

And if that forward direction just happens to direct me to a few days down in Florida? So be it.