pic: my first day at Adobe
Life’s been a little hectic lately – but it’s all been
GREAT! Last week I started a new job at
Adobe, and I’m absolutely loving it. Adobe is one of those Dream Companies to
work for, and I feel incredibly blessed that I have this opportunity. Like when
I interviewed at Apple a few months ago, and it was for a position in Texas –
yes, I would have packed up my life and moved to Texas to work for Apple,
because Apple is one of those Dream Companies too. Fortunately, the Adobe Office in Lehi is only
20 minutes from my house – so I get to continue to sleep in my own bed
EVERY.SINGLE.NIGHT! (You have no idea
how amazingly wonderful that is.)
For the past few months I’ve been working a Temporary
Contract for Unisys. It was only supposed to be for 2-3 weeks, but it’s been 4
months – and they’ve really been great to me. I haven’t touched the work they
originally hired me to do because they’ve had me working on a few big client
projects for them instead. In fact, when I told them I’d be leaving to go to
Adobe, they said “No!” They begged me to finish “just one more” project they
were desperate for, and since they couldn’t possibly match the offer I got from
Adobe – I made a concession: I’d stay-on
for a few extra weeks and finish their project (as long as they’d work around
my new Adobe schedule). Fortunately they were frantic enough to agree. But that
has also meant that for the past 2 weeks I have been doing BOTH jobs, making
for some very long 16-hour days. [Hopefully the extra money in the paychecks
will make it worthwhile.]
And (because apparently I am insane) I have taken on a new
side-gig too. When I was interviewing, I met with Traeger Grills about their
eLearning needs – but they don’t have enough work for a fulltime person. So I
made a deal with them to work on their projects on the side – which has taken
up every spare second that I have had for the past few weeks.
pic: 4 laptops but only one lap
So that explains my FOUR laptops: one is my personal laptop
(which hasn’t even been opened for more than a week), and one each for my other
THREE jobs at Adobe, Unisys, Traeger. Luckily I have a HUGE rolling backpack to
haul them ALL around with me from job to job each day. And fortunately I’m
almost done juggling 3 jobs, and next week will transition to having only 2
jobs.
It’s a lot of work, and I have barely had time to eat and
sleep – let alone anything else (like blogging). But I am having the time of my
life! I love new adventures, and there have certainly been quite a few of them
lately. And because I have always worked, I have really tried to build a career
that I enjoy – and I am truly blessed in that area of my life.
Although I’ve considered myself “Unemployed” for the past
few months, the truth is that I was only not-working for a few weeks – not even
long enough to enroll for Unemployment Benefits. Never in my life have I
collected Unemployment, Welfare, Food Stamps, or anything similar, and although
those programs definitely fill a need for many people, I feel very fortunate to
have never needed to rely on any programs and always had enough resources to
cover my needs. Being debt-free and
having an Emergency Fund has made all the difference in being able to weather
this most-recent storm, and being willing to “settle” for a temporary position
in the interim meant that I could likely have remained “unemployed”
indefinitely (because I still had money coming in).
I’ve learned something interesting about myself too. Because
for the past 20 years I always had to be the breadwinner, I was always about
“Stable Work” — whether or not I was happy. I had to carry the benefits, I had
to pay all the bills, I had to “play it safe” because I wasn’t with someone I
could count on to take care of those things. And that meant that I generally
stayed where I was working, no matter how miserable I was, because it was
expected of me. Once I even had a great opportunity, but it was a little risky,
and he talked me out of it because he didn’t think it was worth the risk – and
looking back, it’s really something I not only wanted to do but it would have
been a fabulous thing to have done. “You always miss the shots you don’t take.”
And now that I’m single again, I’ve taken a few risks – and
they’ve paid off very well. Since my
divorce 3 years ago, my income has doubled and I’ve done more, seen more, lived
more in those 3 years than in the past 20 years combined. I’ve been everywhere,
seen everything, and I have truly learned to “Go For It” – and I’ve never been
happier. I have learned to be adventurous – because life is an adventure. Sure,
I ponder, study, and pray about big changes – but I’ve also learned that if
you’re willing to take a chance AND you’re willing to work your butt off for
it, you can have some incredible opportunities come your way.
