Impact

Right after my Dad died, it was sort of a bad spot for me.  I was definitely not have a look at the world as half full mindset.  The facts:  I had a baby, was working full time and my Dad died.  Then about 3 months later I was fired for not "doing" my job.  I had been on maternity leave for 4 months, bed-rest for 2 months and at a funeral for a month. So, yeah, I missed some work.

When I told someone I had a death in the family, this man said, oh did your dog die?  I said, "No, my father did."

I was all kinds of angry about what happened.  I found another job, very quickly, which after 6 months didn't work out.  Things seemed very bleak.  We needed my income to pay the bills an keep our house.  My options didn't look good.  The economy was in the toilet, nothing like today, but the toilet none the less.

A recruiter got me an interview with Rowenta, they make really fancy irons.  I aced the interview.  I was perfect for the job.  I loved the people, and I thought they loved me.  When I got my feedback from the recruiter, she told me they were passing.  That they loved me and thought I was perfect, but there was just something that didn't seem right about me.  Could it have been my total lack of confidence and misery?

She told me that I needed to take some time and get myself right, because looking for a job when I stink of failure will not work.  She told me to think seriously about what I want to do.  Do I want to keep doing this type of work.  Do I want to do something different.  She asked me to think about what would make me truly happy and then figure out how to get it.  Over the course of the next couple of months she called me a couple of times to check on me.

On July 1, I called her.  I made the decision to stay home with Mac.  This woman pushed me to view my circumstances as freedom and possibility not as failure and depression.  I do not remember her name, but her impact on my life was enormous and wide sweeping.

I think it was the decision my Dad would have wanted me to make.  He wanted me to stay home with my kids and raise them and not have a career.  While I may complain about the kids and my lot quite a bit, it is and was the right decision.