It’s the pre-dawn hours as I sit in the quiet next to the twinkling lights strung around the Christmas tree. I’ve been contemplating the drastic changes I’ve experienced over the last month.
For the past 17 years, I’ve been a stay-at-home. There were years when I was involved in direct sales, years when I volunteered at my children’s schools, and years when I concentrated on my writing and music. I’m grateful I had those opportunities.
More recently, I started substituting at our local schools to make a little music money. I wanted a job where I could make some cash while setting my own hours. And, truth be told, I felt as though I had no skills after being out of the workforce for 17 years. My confidence was low, and I discounted the idea that I was valuable enough to land any kind of job. In fact, the only position I ever held in which I used my English degree was a short, one year stint as a copy editor before I quit work to be home with my first born. I had little-to-no experience as an adult in the workplace.
My husband has been running our small business on his own for the past 11 years. However, due to somewhat unexpected changes last month, I found myself thrown into the full-time position of office manager four weeks ago. My entire existence has changed dramatically over the past 30 days. I’m buried in numbers on a daily basis (and if you’re person who loves words like I do, you know what a challenge it is to deal with numbers). I’ve doubted my abilities multiple times.
In addition, instead of waking up in the middle of the night thinking about song lyrics, I now wake up thinking about contracts and spreadsheets. My house has transitioned from moderately clean to an I’ll-get-to-it-this-weekend mess. Dinner is rarely made of home-cooked meals anymore; instead, my family is eating take out or grilled cheese sandwiches. My girls, who used to take for granted my daily presence, have complained that I’m never home anymore.
Life as I knew it is over, at least for now. For the first couple of weeks, I fought the changes. I never wanted to be a full-time office manager.
However, I’ve started to settle into the new routine, and I’ve realized something: this is good for me. I’ve learned that I adapt
